Saturday, August 11, 2007

Tekemättömiä värjäyksiä Plants I should have dyed with

Puutarha on täynnä kasveja, joita olisi pitänyt ehtiä kerätä väripataan: puitten lehtiä, rikkaruohoja ja kasveja kukkapenkeistä. Nytkin padassa on kokenillilankoja tulossa lisää, kukat saavat jäädä edelleen.
Yksi, jolla minun piti tänä kesänä värjätä, on luonnonvarainen kultapiisku, Solidago virgaurea, jota meillä kasvaa pientareiden lisäksi kukkapenkissä. Siellä siitä tulee paljon muhkeampi kuin luonnossa, tosin väriaineiden määrästä en osaa sanoa. Joskus olen kuullut, että mitä huonommissa oloissa kasvit kasvavat, sitä suurempi on väriainepitoisuus. No, sen kukinta on nyt ohi, kanadanpiiskujen kukinta sen sijaan on vasta syyskuussa, joten ehkäpä sitten niillä ehdin värjätä. Ylemmässä kuvassa kultapiiskua lähempää ja alemmassa muiden perennojen seassa, siis se keltainen on kaikki kultapiiskua. Hmm, taitaa siellä näkyä myös yksi pietaryrtti. Muitakin värikasveja olisi ollut kerättävissä heinäkuussa, jolloin kuva on otettu: valkoinen tummatulikukka (Verbascum nigrum 'Album') olisi ollut hyvä, sillä värjäsin vuosi sitten ja sain lämmintä keltaista, jonka pitäisi olla aika kestävää, sehän sisältää luteoliinia. Sitä kasvaa meillä monessa paikassa, koska se siementää joskus liiankin runsaasti, mutta tässä tapauksessa se on vain hyvä, tulee lisää värikasveja ihan itsekseen. Siniset ovat idänhurtanminttua (Nepeta transcaucasica), sillä en ole kokeillut värjätä, mutta alakulmassa näkyy tarhakäenkaalia (Oxalis corniculata), se punalehtinen, jolla olen kerran kokeillut saaden kyllä sinipunertavaa, joka haalistui aika nopeasti. Lisäkokeiluja on pitänyt tehdä joka vuosi, mutta niin se aika vaan menee. Tämäkin kasvi siementää eli sitä kyllä löytyy joka vuosi uudelleen.

In English
My garden is full of flowers that I was going to use for dyeing (not to mention tree leaves and weeds), now their flowering is over and it is too late for some of them. This year I mean, perennials are so good because they come up every year. Right now there is cochineal again in the pot and flower dyeing must still wait.
One flower I was going to dye with was Goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) which grows in the wild here, but I also have it in my flowerbeds, where it becomes much bigger and flowers more than on the roadsides. I have heard somewhere that the dye content is smaller when plants grow in good soil rather than in poor dry soil, but plants are so much easier to pick from flowerbed and they are bigger, so maybe that makes it up a little bit. The picture of it is in the upper picture, but also all the yellow in the lower picture are goldenrod (hmm, there seems to be also one tansy in the lower picture). In the spring I was going to dig it up, but then I thought that I will let it flower and use it in the dyepot... I never had time. This is so typical of me, I think I can do much more than I really have time to. But anyway, I like it and there is always next year. And in September another kind of Goldenrod flowers here, Solidago canadensis, so maybe I will then have time to use that.
Other flowers in the picture, that I was going to use (and they are still flowering, so it is not totally late) are black mulleins (Verbascum nigrum 'Album'). I have dyed with them last year and they give good warm yellow with alum, which is quite lightfast also, mulleins contain luteolin as their dyestuff. The trouble, with these is that, they look so good when flowering, I have hard time cutting them to the dyepot. And after flowering, they don't give so much color any more. Luckily, they seed around, maybe too much, but I can always use extra seedlings in the dyepot.
In the picture there are also blue Nepeta transcaucasica and red phlox, which I haven't tried for dyeing, but in the left corner in the bottom of the picture there is another dyeplant, red leaved creeping oxalis (Oxalis corniculata). I have once dyed with it and got purplish blue, but that color faded quite soon. Every year I have been meaning to try with it again and maybe get better fast color from it, but... It also seeds itself so much, I will have it available every year, I won't propably never get rid of it even if I wanted.

3 comments:

  1. Käypä lukemassa blogistani tunnustus

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the red-leaved Oxalis, I have seen it in people's gardens about and it is so striking. Maybe I will plant some next year.

    I have had fabulous luck with wild goldenrod, I have a skein of it that I dyed maybe 5 years ago and it is a beautiful gold-yellow.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I saw your goldenrod yarn and it really was beautiful. I also liked the oxalis color you got in your blog and now I have to add polygonum- species to my plants-to-dye-with- list:-) I don't think I have Polygonum persicaria, but I do have some other Polygonum species here, with which I could try with.

    ReplyDelete