Tuesday, December 24, 2019

December 24 Merry Christmas Iloista Joulua


Jouluaaton väri on oranssinpunainen, jonka olen värjännyt omassa puutarhassa kasvatetuilla krappijuurilla. Tämä lanka on minulle tärkeä. Olin kylvänyt siemenet 8 vuotta sitten, ja viime vuonna kaivoin sen juuria värjäykseen. Krappi kasvaa melko hitaasti täällä, mutta olen onnellinen, että se on selvinnyt kaikki nämä vuodet ja talvet, vaikkakaan siemeniä se ei koskaan ole tehnyt.  On niin hieno tunne, kun voi kasvattaa siemenistä jotain, mistä sitten voi saada värejä monen vuoden kasvatuksen jälkeen.

ILOISTA JOULUA KAIKILLE BLOGINI LUKIJOILLE JA ONNELLISTA TULEVAA VUOTTA 2020!

IN ENGLISH
Christmas colour is orange red, which I have dyed with my own grown madder.
For me it is a special colour. I've sown the seeds maybe eight years ago, and harvested the roots last year. Madder grows quite slowly here, and I am so happy has survived the winters, even though it has never produced seeds in my garden. It gives so much satisfaction to grow something from seeds, and then dye with it after many years of growing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU, AND VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020!

12 comments:

  1. This is just a other of your beautiful colours, Leena!
    And yes, it does give so much satisfaction to grow something from seeds, and then dye with it. Only that I am more lucky than you and my madder produces seeds every year. When I explain my colours I proudly tell people that "this is dyed with madder from my garden".

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    1. Ladka, that is just how I feel, too:).
      In some very hot summers my madder has had a few flowers late in summer, but never seeds. I think summer is too short for it here, but luckily I can increase it from roots now that I have it growing.

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    2. Yes, madder is said to be easy to propagate with roots although I have never done it. I've always used my own seeds. But I still don't have a garden of my own so my madders have to live in pots and can't develop thick roots.
      If you'd like to try propagating it from seed I'd love to send you some.

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    3. Hi Ladka, thank you for the thought but I can increase it from roots if I have to.
      I would have liked my madder to produce seeds, because I think plants grown from your own seeds, adapt better to your own conditions. Every generation adapts better than the previous, and so it would end with getting madder plants which are most suited to growing here, or even in more northern Finland. However even though my plants sometimes make one or two flowers, it is always too late in the summer for the seeds to ripen, and not all flowers begin to grow seeds, so they are maybe not pollinated.

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  2. Dear Leena, I wish you a wonderful new year in 2020. You encourage me to think more about growing madder in my area of north eastern Canada. The growing season is short, but now I think it might be possible. xo

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    1. Thank you Judy! Madder has been hardy here, but growing season seems to be too short for it to flower and produce seeds. Rubia peregrina died in one cold winter, but madder survived.

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  3. I have grown madder here in Iceland. Almost every year I have thought that it had died in winter because it is really late in growing in spring. But I finally harvested it after 5 years of growing. The roots were not very thick and I never had any flowers, much less seeds. I still haven't dyed with it, but will do so soon.

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    1. Hi Ambra, it is the same here: madder grows very slowly, it is maybe because of our climate.

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  4. Leena, Thanks for the madder roots, I colored 2 kg in the yarn and dyed it more. I buy seeds and try to grow them in Latvia.
    We have had hot and long summers in recent years.

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    1. Thank you:) I think your climate is better for growing madder than ours, and I think autumns are longer over there than here. Except this year winter has been so mild!

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  5. The intense colors you have produced on your yarns are spectacular! I live half of my life on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, and reading your information inspires me to try and grow madder. In our woods there is a great variety of mushrooms but I have never found enough of any one variety to dye with. Maybe sometime...

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    1. Thank you:) Do have Galium species growing over there? Like Galium boreale or it's relatives? They have red in their roots also, and early Vikings used to use them to dye red.
      Mushrooms are not always easy to find:(

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