Published: 14 January 2025

We all garden for different reasons. Some of us, simply for the joy of making a beautiful space. Others for the satisfaction of feeding our family with amazing homegrown food. Some of us garden for therapy and the healing connection with nature. But whatever the reason, our gardens and allotments can be a source of enormous bounty. And one such resource that few of us ever use is the garden’s potential for providing natural dyes.

Whether you’re looking for a new hobby to enjoy with the kids or to get creative with clothing, plant dyeing offers endless possibilities.

How to Use Plants to Create Natural Dyes

Understand your colour palette

It’s a fairly obvious statement to make, but different plants yield different colours. So, before you start making plant dyes, it’s a good idea to consider which colours you most wish to produce. Although many plants will be unavailable in winter, you likely have already a whole rainbow of different colour options available, ready to emerge in your garden in spring. But if you have a particular colour in mind, now is a good time to start planting.

  • Onion skins, marigolds, chamomile, rhubarb, and goldenrod are perfect for producing yellow and gold dyes.
  • For red and pink dyes, you’ll need to look for the root of the wildflower madder. Although hibiscus flowers, cosmos flowers, and beetroot also work well.
  • For blues and purples, look for woad, indigo, and purple cabbage.
  • Spinach, nettles, and eucalyptus are all great sources for green dyes
  • While brown dyes are produced by walnut hulls, tea, and oak galls—growths on oak trees caused by gall wasps, which inject chemicals into the tree.

Making your dye

Making dye from plants is easier than you might think. In most cases, you will simply need to chop or crush your plant material to release the colour. Then simmer each plant type separately in water for at least an hour. The longer you simmer the materials, the more intense the dye will become. Once you’ve achieved your desired colour, strain out the plant bits. Your dye is now ready to use.

If you want to adjust the colour tone, it can be fun to experiment and add in modifiers, such as vinegar, salt, or baking soda.

Prepare your fabric

When your dye is ready, you’ll need something to use it on! You can use it on a whole range of materials, from paper to cellulose. The only real rule is that you’ll gain better results on natural fibres, such as cotton, linen, wool, and silk.

Before you use the dye, you’ll need to prepare the fabric. In most cases, this will simply mean washing it to ensure that it is free from oil and/or dirt. However, in some cases, you may also need to use a substance that helps the dye bind to the fibre. This process is called mordanting. There are a range of common mordants, including alum, iron, or tannin.

Dyeing the fabric

Once your fabric and dye are ready, you can begin. And it’s really as simple as immersing your fabric into the dye. Try to ensure even coverage and avoid tight folds or twists (unless you’re after a tie-dye effect). The longer you leave the material in the dye, the deeper the colour will be. You can also bathe the fabric multiple times for richer shades.

That done, all you need to do is rinse your fabric in cool water until it runs clear.

Setting the dye

After rinsing, you should leave your fabric to dry naturally. Do not wear it, use it, or wash it until the material is completely dry; otherwise, the colour may not set. If you used a mordant, it may also come off on your skin and other clothes.

Plant dying can be a really enjoyable pastime. It’s creative, versatile, and sustainable—especially if you remember not to harvest everything you find and instead leave some for the bees! It can help you to connect with and understand nature on a deeper level. While enabling you to create something totally unique.

So, next time you’re looking for something different to do in the garden, have a look if making natural dyes might be an option!

Growing plants for dyes can be a fun way to add colour to your garden. But sometimes, it’s nice to see the plants in context before you choose what to grow. If you’re looking for inspiration for your garden, head to Holker Hall when we reopen this spring. 

Matthew and his team will be working hard over the winter months to prepare our 25 acres of Gardens ready for you to enjoy when we reopen on Friday, 21st March 2025. We look forward to welcoming you then.