The sentence of death for weld

These fabulous-well to a natural dyer they are fabulous- lovely weld plants are under sentence of death- the reason?  They are growing in Enys's green house.  She tells me she tried to germinate some weld seed a couple of years ago, they failed, she cast them on the greenhouse floor and her DH dug the ground for his tomatoes and .....Weld! Enys says she will try and transplant them but they have very very very long roots.

For some time now she has been nurturing madder in pots.  Amazing to think  these rather uninspiring looking  plants can produce of the greatest of dyes.  These plants are two years old and so only really need another year or possibly two. before they can be used .    Enys is going to give them a haircut this is,  she tells me,  to encourage growth. 
The other plant is Coreopsis sp one of my favourites as it makes  a lovely vibrant orange with ammonia.  
If you have clicked on the links to see the colour you can get  get from these you can see why I am really keen on them all.  I hope the weld plants survive being transplanted  I had very little weld last year and I really missed it. 

 

Oh! and Happy New year to all my readers  followers and friends .

May you be fulfilled 

and happy

Spring in the Dye Garden Frog spawn

The frog spawn is developing fast. Now you can see heads and tails.
Enys and I pottered around the dye garden looking to see what is coming up, what needs to be done and what I want. Basically loads of blue, so woad (I.Tinctoria), chinese woad (I. I ndigotica) and Persicaria Tinctoria. Then I want lots of Dyers Chamomile ( Anthemis Tinctoria) and Coreopis Tinctoria as these go into my dye kits and the latter also makes my orange ink. Genista Tinctoria only seems to last two or three years, so this year we will have to plant some more. This year I only have one self seeded weld so I hope I find lots of wild weld! DG is going to dig over a weedy spot today so may I will sprinkle weld seeds there in the hope I will get plenty next year. I love cosmos too and holly hocks even though I rarely use then for dyeing-too pretty! This drives Enys mad as she would like to see me doing more experimental dyeing-so would I but production dyeing for the workshops and craft fairs (and for my pictures) has to come first. We will plant the black violas in the pots too so pretty even if the colour is fugitive. All the other plants seem to be doing quite well although with having had so cold winter and spring they are slow.No sign of golden rod yet, the iris pseudocorus is just beginning to sprout, buds are swelling on the rhus typhinus and a few madder spouts in one or two places. Lythrum salicaria looks totally dormant at the moment but indestructible yarrow is looking healthy. No sign of ladies bedstraw ( galium varum) however dyers chamomile and dyers coreopsis are both starting to sprout form the base. Goodee!

From Enys
Just been potting on yet more seedlings, and looking at the ones I potted up last week, and thinking by this time next week they'll need to be put in bigger pots!! Trouble is I can't throw any plant away, Peter (husband) manages to be quite heartless and discards any of his plants that he thinks don't maker the grade. My problem is - all my plants are really strong so I can't bear to discard any, must try and stop anthropormorphising them (how's that for a big word) and talking to them, or one day men in white coats will take ma away!!
Enough for now.

Plants

From Enys
I've obviously got time on my hands, ot maybe I just need a break from potting on seedlings. I potted on what seemed like thousands yesterday, it was actually about 150, Anthemis tinctoria and Persicaria tinctoria. I'm now looking at the Chinese woad, got two more tray to pot on. At least it doesn't matter if it rains, I just adore being in the greenhouse. I could quite cheerfully move in there, nice and quiet, except when my almost 4 year old grandson comes with me, he manages to make himself absolutely filthy, but at least making mud is a quiet occupation! He is actually very helpful, he fills up the pots for meand can usually manage about 20 before boredom sets in!! All the plants that are now large enough are being taken outside to be hardened off, bit of a drag having to take them in and out for a few days before being able to leave them out permenantly. My Madder has at last made an effort and I now have a few to pot on to the next stage, really exciting - that makes me sound so sad!!
Dog and I are now going out to take in plants - it never stops.
Enys

Plants in the spring

Posted by Enys
Finally got some time to write in the blog, having completely forgotten how it's done and having to e-mail Helen to remind me how to. The whole of one side of the green house is full of seedling at various stages of development (I have allowed my husband to grow his tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and various other plants, he's very long suffering!) although I must admit I seem to have at least 3/4 of the space. The persicaria is growing really well, Helen has taken photos of them 60 +, Chinese woad - 3 trays of 20 per tray, lots of Coreopsis, Anthemis tinctoria, Carthamus tinctorus - the first time I tried growing Carthamus it was a failure 3 plants which didn't thrive at all, this year all the seeds germinated and have been potted on. Three weeks of panic - no sign of the madder, three trays of compost greeting me and nothing growing until a few days ago and now they are sprouting up in all the trays, guess they just needed some of the warm sun that we've had this last week, so that's really great. The Echium vulgare are already potted on, and the Indigofera tinctoria -already 4 seedling showing. Gallium verum, Cosmos, Woad are also coming along well. Baptisia Australis has overwintered in the greenhouse so I've got some really strong plants to put out in the main garden, Asclepeas tuberosa also overwinted well along with Anthemis tinctoria, Coreopsis and one Weld which was growing on the floor, it's now in its own pot and looking very happy.
I kept 2 Chinese woad plants in the greenhouse for the winter to make sure that I would get seed and they are now flowering. The Chinese woad overwintered in the garden and promptly got eaten by the rabbits (3 of which are now in my freezer- the rabbits not the woad!) But it is growing again. The rabbits are a real pest, I have no problem with slugs, snails or any other pest except the pheasants in the Autumn when the gamekeeper lets out the young birds, they tend to eat the veg and some plants. We are now going to have to net a vast area of the garden- b....y nuisance. Fortunately my other garden behind the house has not yet been discovered by the rabbits so the Chinese woad was safe there. My wonder dog Cariad (German Shepherd) loves to chase them but being a sheepdog is not into killing just trying to herd them, they don't even have to run very fast to get away from her. Back to plants, there are not enough hours in the day now, , everything is growing so it's the busiest time, potting on, planting, watering. Weeds growing really well, turn your back and the dandelions are back. I've got a real problem with bindweed, not the big white flowered one, but the small pink flowered one, very pretty but not when it chokes my plants. Sadly rabbits do not eat weeds. Some of these plants (not the bindweed) will go into Helen's garden and I've just revamped a small part of mine approx. 40 metres x 4 metres, I'll take some photos and post them for next time. Back to work. Dog walk- plant - dog walk and so on the pattern of my days, + the odd days when I work in other gardens.
Enys

Seeds

Posted by Helen
Last week I went round to Enys's house to have a look at the emerging dye plants mostly for the Woolfest in Cumbria in June but some will be big enough for Wonderwool Wales which is April 25th & 26th at the Royal Welsh ground at Builth Wells. The Japanese polygonum (Persicaria Tinctoria) has germinated well-over 60plants Enys said-plants like dyers chamomile (Anthemis Tinctoria ),coreopsis (Coreopis Tinctoria) and cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) are as usual romping away, and the woads are better this year than last. One of the plants that is doing much better than ever before is safflower, carthemis tinctorius. Enys was furious at the madder -the seed tray on the top left of the picture of seed trays as none of the madder had germinated after two weeks. Over the years she has tried various ways to get it to grow, she tells me, but it is always difficult. I lent forward to inspect the reluctant seeds and saw one just starting to push it's way through. Time for champagne? I suggested hopefully. We went back to celebrate with coffee.
Incidentally the nearly flowering woad is Chinese woad (Isatis Indigotica) and as mine is flowering too we should have plenty of seeds for next year. The Chinese woad we have planted this year is still from the original seed sent to me by Annee Silk in Canada who sent them twice when the first lot did not germinate. Chinese woad (Isatis Indigotica) produces more indigotin (about twice as much)as does the European woad (Isatis Tinctoria). The comparison data is here

While I was there Enys proudly showed me lots of robust Baptisia Australis-"what dye colour do we get from it"? She asked. My mind went blank. However researching through my archives I found I wrote a post about the Baptisia and you can find what I did here!

Welcome to my all new followers.

Enys blog on dye plants 19 April 2008

enys said...
Mae Tyfu Lliw yn enw addas iawn i'r 'blog' yma. Yr wyf yn cael llawer o hwyl yn tyfu bob math o flodau i Helen i'w defnyddio. Mae hi yn creu lluniau bendigedig, mae y lliwiau yn hollol naturiol ac felly yn gweithio yn dda iawn yn rhoi lliw credadwy o'r wlad o'm cwmpas.I was just wondering if there was a Welsh person out there using natural dyes.I'm so glad the polygonum has germinated, I get worried when I send seeds.The Woad grows everywhere in my garden, but I always plant some seeds in the greenhouse, and these never do very well - so now I rely on it self seeding (which it does with a vengence).I germinated the Chinese Woad in 3 different ways, bottom heat -very succesful, greenouse covered in bubble wrap very good result but obvious slower, and in an open tray and they are just showing now. The weather has been so dull and cold so everything is very slow, usually by now I am potting on at a frantic rate, as it is I've potted on about 30 Japanese polygonums and I've got what looks like hundreds more. Make sure you let one or more plants set seed to save for next year.I'm going to put most of the Chinese Woad in Helen's garden, to avoid it cross pollinating with my Isatis tinctoria Woad. I've got a another place to put mine a long way from the main garden. Always exciting growing new plants.Enys

Helens' note-Enys meant to post this but put it into a comment box instead so I have posted it for her.
Incidetnally woad does not flourish in my garden. We grow it here from Enys plants but rarely do we find woad self seeding any where in my garden.

Chinese Woad

The Chinese Woad seeds, Isatis Indogotica sent to me by Annee Silk from Prince Edward Island in Canada have now also started to germinate. Enys, who grows the dyeplants, and I are particularly pleased about this as last year the seeds Annee sent did not germinate. So we are very hopeful of having Chinese Woad reputed to have a higher level of indogitin per weight of leaves than Isatis Tinctoria ( woad) according to my favourite author Dominque Cardon.