Blue Jay's Picks, Woad and Japanese Indigo

I finally ordered the Woad and Japanese Indigo from Sand Mountain Herbs. They should be here next week. They both yield blue dye,

Blue Jay mentioned the blue color when she saw the Sand Mountain Herbs web site with the Woad seeds page up. Also on the page was the warning that the Woad seeds could not be shipped to Montana, California, Washington state, Utah or Oregon,. Colorado is in the clear.

I also purchased potting soil and additional peat pots. Lucy and I labeled Popsicle sticks to Identify the plants. We even included the height of the grown plants. Blue Jay was not to enthused with this part of the project.

The Woad will grow to be about two feet high. But the Indigo description didn’t include an estimated height. We’ll be arranging the plants with the taller ones toward the back of the flower beds.

I’ve been waiting for some less windy weather, and at a time when Pi Guy aren’t riding, and Blue Jay isn’t doing home school work. That day might come tomorrow. I also need to check to see if there are any other seeds that I need to purchase, and what collection hikes we might go on.

Blue Jay's Picks; Hibiscus, Hollyhocks, St. John's Wort, Scarlet Pea

The more I delve into the plants on Blue Jay’s Picks list, the more I wonder how I’ll have time to mow the lawn. She only picked twelve plants and I have five more to go.

Hibiscus, or Rose Mallow is another one of those items that we will have to purchase to enjoy. I think that the lavender, rose dye color is what drew Blue Jay to the Hibiscus. The plant has pretty reddish and circular flowers, but some of the dye results, depending on the mordant and material, are nearly black. The plants will require some maintenance in this dry climate, and might do best in bed 77, in the shade.

I noticed that Blue Jay skipped over the Hollyhocks. “Oh no, why does it have to be Hollyhocks?”

St. John’s Wort produces some golds and reddish browns. When I first started researching St. John’s Wort, I had another of those puzzles. I was thinking along the lines of garden flowers. When I found Sand Mountain Herbs.com there was a handy red note saying that the seeds could not be shipped to Oregon, California, Colorado, Montana, Utah or Washington State.

Looking further on the USDA web site, I found that Common St. John’s Wort was C listed in Colorado, meaning that it was a noxious weed. (I like Sand Mountain Herbs for their ecological responsibility.) I’ll have no reservations about collecting this plant from pastures or open range. It is poisonous to livestock. It’s another one for the hike, ride or drive collection method.

Blue Jay passed over several brilliant yellows and went to the blues. Indigo first. The indigofera suffriticosa is native to Mexico and the Caribbean and has distribution in the southeast.

I did find another close relative indigofera miniata, which is supposed to be found in Texas. Its common name is Scarlet Pea or Texas Indigo. (This information is via the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center). It reminds me of a plant that I have seen off the Rock Island Path while commuting to work on my bicycle. I think that we will try this, however since Rita Buchanan suggested that most alternatives in the indigofera genus don’t yield any useful color, we’ll get some seeds Indigo Tinctura from Sand Mountain Herbs. They like full sun and should do well in bed 88 or 311.

For more experimentation, we might get some shrubs from heronswood.com, the indigofera heterantha.

Japanese Indigo and Woad are the last two on Blue Jay’s list. I’ll get these next time.

Colorado Day, Blue Jay in Color

When I mentioned this morning at breakfast that I needed to post to Blue Jay Natural Dye, Blue Jay was emphatic about knowing what SHE would post.

She pointed out the kitchen window. It took me a minute to sort out all the items that were in her range of view. Not the cable junction box on the power pole in the alley. Not the squirrel on the Pergola. Yes, the little green budded leaves on the lilac. I should have taken a photo then.

The budding has been made apparent to my sinuses and allergies for several days, but I didn’t point that out. I love it when she gets excited about that stuff.

She also wants to try the Onion Skin dye that she found in one of her American Girl books, entitled Kirsten’s Craft Book. It is a little out of sequence for my preparations, but I think that we can manage.

I looked at the craft instructions in Kirsten’s Craft Book. They were well written out, so we may try them. There were sixteen craft instructions including patterns for stenciling boxes, and painted clay bead jewelry, too.

I wanted to do all the dyeing processes out side.


Yesterday's temperature topped 80° F. This morning was sunshine, blue sky, and in the fifties. This afternoon,... see the picture.

We still do need to cut up the fabric for color samples. We may do that instead and do the outdoor tasks tomorrow.

Blue Jay drew her room. Oak flooring, solid blue rug, yellow walls, white ceiling, wood dresser, desk, bed and bookcase and an orange, a yellow, and a purple canvas storage tote finish out the rooms furnishings.

Here is her impressionist view.



And, Blue Jay in color.

Blue Jay picks sunflowers, yarrow

Sunflowers (helianthus annuus) are next on Blue Jay's list of plants. They give very nice green yellow die color when the fresh blossoms are used. We just have to plant some of these.

I’d like not only the common sunflowers but some of the bushier and smaller blossomed ones. Burpee.com has some of these, but their taller varieties are up to fourteen feet tall and are hybrids. Burpee.com doesn’t give the scientific name, either. Parkseeds.com has the helianthus annuus and various other sunflowers and does usually list the scientific name.

There is a particular challenge with sunflowers, too, reds, or blues from the Hopi Black Dye sunflower. Plantsofthesouthwest.com has seeds for this plant available. On their website they even mention the colors, blue to red, that can be obtained depending on the mordant. They mention the very dark seed coat as being instrumental for the colors. Until I can get vibrant colors from sunflower seeds this will be my enterprise.

Sunflower relatives are also native to the Rocky Mountains. The Aspen Sunflower (Helianthella quinquenervis) grows in damp woods and aspen groves, and flowers mid summer. The Tall Marsh Sunflower (Helianthus nuttallii) inhabits irrigation ditch banks, sloughs, and marshy places in the plains and foothills. The Prairie or Narrow Leaf Sunflower is shorter with smaller flowers and grows on roadsides and fields. And then, there is the Stiff Sunflower. Smaller still than the Prairie Sunflower, the center disk is brownish purple, a hopeful hue. (Hopeful because I hope that we can get good colors from the seed hulls.) It grows in drier areas, foothills, mesas and plains, and blooms in late summer. These are all field trip gathering items.

Blue Jay’s selection of Yarrow (Achilla) is going to be a classic. She can’t look at the Dyer’s Garden book or hear the name without mentioning her aunt in Dolores, and her “problem” with Yarrow. According to Blue Jay we’ll either be going there to pick some or having her aunt pick some. Meet the Natives locates Yarrow in all locations from plains to alpine. Surely we will have to harvest this in Dolores and maybe other hikes, rides and drives.

Blue Jay's Picks, Tansy, Black Eyed Susans, Cone Flowers

Her choices total twelve plants.

Next on Blue Jay’s list is Tansy (tanacetum vulgare). The dye results are of golds and yellows.

It has surprised me (second time today) that Tansy by that name isn’t all that advertised as a seed or plant, and, Meet the Natives didn’t list it. It does show up on a Montana State University as a weed. “Common tansy, an aromatic perennial with a long history of medicinal use, has become a problem weed in pastures and along roadsides, fence lines and stream banks.” (My thanks to Ron LeCain and Roger Sheley.) So, hikes, rides and drives will do for harvest of Tansy.

There is also the possibility of using as a supply, Southwest Botanicals. They sell Tansy as an herbal supplement, dried, at less than $13 per pound, not including shipping.

Black-eyed Susan’s (Rudbeckia fulgida) was Blue Jay’s next choice. It results in deep golds from the leaves and stems and rich browns from the flowers in full bloom. Again there are relatives of the Black-eyed Susan mentioned by RB in the Rocky Mountain region. Meet the Natives, M. Walter Pesman, has illustrated the Black-eyed Susan as Rudbeckia hirta. This is a variation that RB mentions.


Two versions that RB doesn’t comment on are the Tall Cone Flower (Rudbeckia laciniata) and the Naked Cone Flower (Rudbeckia occidentalis). The hirta variety is found in Aspen groves, but also along our own Rock Island Trail. The two Coneflowers, Tall and Naked, are to be found along stream banks. So, hikes, rides and drives will do for gathering samples. I’m thinking that this picture shows the Tall Coneflower in dried state at the end of our street.

I’ll have to summarize Blue Jay’s Picks along with some of my own, with details on how we’ll go about getting them. I’d really recommend looking these up on either the USDA or Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The links are in the right margin at the bottom.

Blue Jay's Picks Bedstraw, Cosmos, Marigolds

Yellow bedstraw is first on Blue Jay’s favorites list. It makes a nice tangerine color on wool with an alum mordant according to RB. Gallium verum is the Latin, scientific name. I found a close relative in Meet the Natives, (M. Walter Pesman). He calls it Bedstraw, of the Madder family or gallium boreale. It should be easy to find on road sides and dry slopes. Our specimens will be the result of hikes, rides or drives in the neighboring countryside.

Yellow Cosmos (or cosmos sulfureus) is next. The dye results in a deeper, darker orange. It doesn’t appear to be a native. But, bright side, we have some in our corner garden, 88, that should be returning this year. These samples will be a garden harvest. I think that the seeds came from Ace Hardware several years ago.

Marigolds (tagetes erecta, or tagetes patula) result in various shades of olive to yellow. RB separates the flower dye from the stem and leaf dye. Surprisingly, to me anyway, I found a couple of Marigold relatives native to the area, more alpine though. The White Marsh Marigold (caltha leptosepala) of the Buttercup family is found in marshy areas. Our specimens will be the result of hikes.

There is also the Beggar’s Tick or Bur Marigold (Biden’s Cernua) of the Sunflower family. This can be found along irrigation ditches, streams and marshy areas. We’ll collect samples for this from hikes, too.

I reflected on this plant with Blue Jay, looking at the Burpee website (burbee.com). I was showing her all the different varieties of marigolds they had. My though was that any of the varieties could yield nice colors. She was stuck on the “Marigold Scarlet Starlet”. That was the one that we had to get. Reasoning with her was not an option.

When I asked why, Blue Jay found A Dyer’s Garden and opened it up to the Marigold page. The picture there and the Burpee picture could have been cropped from the same photo. Generally I call that a “nice catch.”

Garden Inspection

Blue Jay and I inspected the flowerbeds in our back yard yesterday, it being an especially fine and warm day. We looked at the flowering plant remnants that have not yet been removed. It allowed us to do some remembering of what plants were where and will probably help us with plant identification.

We have three flowerbeds in the back. All of them are slightly raised. This could and may be extended to four or five. But right now we have the 7’ x 7’ bed which is shaded much of the day year round. I’ll call this the “77.” The remaining two are mostly sunny. One is about 8’ x 8’, in the corner, and has a 5’ x 5’ triangle taken out where it meets the lawn. This one will be called “88.” The third runs along the fence with a little more sun exposure than 88, and is 3’ x 11’. It’ll be “311”


311 and 77 have rich histories of recreational digging. A famous picture of Pi Guy from about five or six years ago has him proudly posed with a shovel and absolutely covered in mud in front of 311. It is glorious.

More recently, Blue Jay and a friend discovered in it, a “time capsule” with my dad’s old metal detector. It was buried there about a year ago and forgotten. The "capsule" was a tin container with various treasures in it. So I offered the warning that these flowerbeds, once cleaned up for planting would no longer be the site of any more recreational digging. She agreed, and said she would tell her friends the same.

Then there is my part. Identifying which plants we’ll be able to find in the “wild” and which one’s that we will want to purchase, plant, grow, and harvest. For this end I have a list of the plants in Rita Buchanan’s book as well as James Lyles book. The Art and Craft of Natural Dying. This list I’m going to cross-reference with a book by M. Walter Pesman, Meet the Natives, A Beginners Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers, Trees and Shrubs.

All of these books are available through Amazon.com, but Meet the Natives is also available at http://www.allbookstores.com/.