Natural Dye from Flowers: A Dye Garden Plant List
If you want to use natural dyes in your projects and on your fabrics, you need… dye! One of the best ways to attain natural dyes is dye from flowers. Grow your own plant dyes right in your own garden with this dye garden plant list.
If you’re dipping your toe into natural dyeing and enjoying it (it’s fascinating, right?), then it’s time to dip your whole foot in by growing your own dye garden. And if you’re already a gardener, well, half the battle is already eliminated because all you’ll need to do is add a few dye plants to your established garden.
Note: You can use many different plants from flowers to trees and herbs to fruits and vegetables for natural dye. Today, I’m simply focusing on flowering plants you can grow to get dye from flowers.
Natural dyeing is a fun and rewarding activity that yields some amazing and unique results. I’m diving in and showing you the different aspects of natural dyeing to help make your learning curve a lot smaller than mine was! You can also check out this post on how to use natural dyes to dye fabrics safely.
Gardening to Get Dye from Flowers
When it comes to growing a dye garden, the good news is that you don’t need to create a separate garden to grow your dye plants. Instead, you can simply incorporate them into any existing beds or borders you already have.
In fact, if you love growing plants, you likely already have a few dye plants growing!
Of course, growing plants is just the first step of natural dyeing. If you want to dye your fabrics and yarns naturally, you’ll need to learn about mordanting in order to make your dye stick to your fiber permanently.
Storing Plant Dyes
With a flower garden, just as with a vegetable or fruit garden, you likely won’t gather enough material all at one time to use for your project, so you’ll need to store it until you do.
Once you have gathered enough material to fill your dye bath, then you can begin dyeing. To save your material until you have enough, preserve flowers in the freezer.
Dye Garden Plant List
Use this list (broken down by color categories) to help you pick and choose which flowers you want in your dye garden.
Yellow Plant Dyes
These flowers are best for getting those beautiful yellow colors. Since natural dyes can vary quite a bit, you may get anything from tan to pale yellow to orange in this group. Even green (depending on the plant part used – or by mixing with blue!)
I’ll be a little more specific with regard to each plant listed.
Yarrow
Yarrow is a flowering perennial in the aster family with bright yellow flowers, native to the northern hemisphere. Yarrow is drought tolerant, deer resistant, and looks lovely planted in full sun perennial beds or borders. Yarrow will also bloom all summer long.
Botanical Name: Achillea millefolium
Type of Plant: Perennial
Flower Color: Yellow, white, pink, red, orange
Bloom Time: Spring-fall
Plant Part to Use: Leaves and stems
Best mordant to Use: Alum
Dye Color: Yellow
Learn More: See our complete guide on growing yarrow
Bloodroot
Bloodroot is a perennial flowering herb that’s native to eastern North America. Some natural dyes can turn different colors depending on which mordant you use. Bloodroot is one of them.
With no mordant, bloodroot gives a lovely orange color. However, with alum, it gives a rust color, and with tin, it gives a reddish-pink color.
Botanical Name: Sanguinaria canadensis
Type of Plant: Perennial
Flower Color: White
Bloom Time: Spring
Plant Part to Use: Roots
Mordant to Use: None, alum, or tin
Dye Color: Varies based on which mordant you use
Black-Eyed Susan
Black-Eyed Susans are wildflowers in the aster family native to North America. Using the leaves and stems, you get a yellow or orange dye. However, using the flowers gives an olive green dye.
Botanical Name: Rudbeckia hirta
Type of Plant: Perennial
Flower Color: Gold
Bloom Time: June-October
Plant Part to Use: Leaves and stems (for gold or orange); flowers (for olive green)
Mordant to Use: Alum
Dye Color: Depends on the part of the plant you use (see above)
Learn More: See our guide on how to grow Rudbeckia from seed to flower.
Dyer’s Coreopsis
Dyer’s Coreopsis is also in the Aster family and can be used for plant dyes. It’s an annual that’s native to North America and can grow just about anywhere with full sun, even in poor soil.
Botanical Name: Coreopsis tinctoria
Type of Plant: Annual
Flower Color: Gold, maroon bicolor
Bloom Time: Midsummer
Plant Part to Use: Flowers, whole plant
Mordant to Use: Alum
Dye Color: Gold, orange, rusty red
Zinnia
Zinnias are annuals that are typically grown for their beautiful flowers to put in flower arrangements.
Botanical Name: Zinnia elegans
Type of Plant: Annual
Flower Color: Red, orange, pinks
Bloom Time: Summer-frost
Plant Part to Use: Flowers
Mordant to Use: Alum
Dye Color: Beige and tan
Reds
Red plant dyes can vary from light pink to rust to purples. Huge variance, right? Plus, as you may have already noticed, some plants can provide wildly different dye colors depending on which part of the plant you use.
Alkanet
Alkanet is a biennial herb in the borage family noted for its blue flowers and the red dye from its roots.
Botanical Name: Anchusa offinicinalis
Type of Plant: Biennial
Flower Color: Blue
Bloom Time: Mid-summer
Plant Part to Use: Roots
Mordant to Use: None
Dye Color: Red
Dyer’s Woodruff
Ornamental tiny white flowers with an airy growth habit similar to Baby’s Breath.
Botanical Name: Asperula tinctoria
Type of Plant: Perennial
Flower Color: White
Bloom Time: Early summer
Plant Part to Use: Leaves
Mordant to Use: Alum
Dye Color: Reds
Hollyhock
A classic garden favorite: this flowering plant is in the mallow family and is native to Europe and Asia. It grows tall with large ruffled flowers that look like they were plucked out of an English cottage garden. The flowers are beacons for hummingbirds!
Botanical Name: Alcea rosea
Type of Plant: Perennial
Flower Color: Dark rose, red, black
Bloom Time: Summer
Plant Part to Use: Light-colored flowers (for yellow, gold, or brown), dark-colored flowers (for lilac, purple, pink, and light reds)
Mordant to Use: Alum
Dye Color: Depends (see above)
Blues
Blues can vary quite a bit as well, but not seemingly as much as the yellows or reds do. Here are some common plants to grow for blue dye.
Woad
Woad is a flowering plant in the brassica family (think: cauliflower, broccoli) known for its leaves’ blue dye.
Botanical Name: Isatus tinctoria
Type of Plant: Biennial
Flower Color: Yellow
Bloom Time: Spring
Plant Part to Use: Leaves
Mordant to Use: None
Dye Color: Blue
Indigo
Indigo has been used for centuries for its deep blue dye. A part of the bean family, the plant dyes are found in the leaves. Indigo can grow as an annual in colder climates.
Botanical Name: Indigofera tinctoria
Type of Plant: Shrub
Flower Color: Violet
Bloom Time: Summer
Plant Part to Use: Leaves
Mordant to Use: None
Dye Color: Indigo (deep) blue
Russian Sage
A hardy, beautiful plant that grows bush-like with spiky clusters of lavender flowers that are so abundant they almost completely obscure the leaves.
Russian sage is a beautiful plant to grow in and around your garden and yard. It makes a wonderful tea, dries and smells, and looks beautiful in bloom. It also makes a beautiful blue fabric dye.
Botanical Name: Perovskia atriplicifolia
Type of Plant: Perennial
Flower Color: Lavender-purple
Bloom Time: Summer-frost
Plant Part to Use: Flowers
Mordant to Use: None
Dye Color: Blue
Bachelor’s Buttons
These beauties, also known as cornflowers, are easy to grow, can be easily dried, and produce a beautiful blue dye.
Botanical Name: Centaurea cyanus
Type of Plant: Annual
Flower Color: Pink, blue, purple, white
Bloom Time: Spring-fall
Plant Part to Use: Flowers
Mordant to Use: Alum
Dye Color: Blue
- Learn More: Bachelor buttons are one of my absolute favorite flowers to dry. The color is retained very well and the flowers hold up for crafts and decorations. Check out our post on how to best dry flowers if you’re interested.
Final Thoughts on Dye from Flowers
This list is not an exhaustive one. Many other plants can be used as natural dye sources, including trees, fruits, vegetables, and more.
However, I think it’s really interesting to see that dye from flowers in your backyard garden can produce quite a rainbow of colors!
Are you interested in growing a garden?
We have many articles about growing flowers indoors, outdoors, and in containers:
- Petunia Hanging Basket Care – How to Grow Enviable Displays!
- How to Dry Rose Petals In Under Two Minutes Flat (2022)
- How to Keep Cut Roses Fresh in Water As Long As Possible
- How To Dry Lavender (Preserving Methods And Tips)
- How To Grow Lavender In Pots Successfully!
- 12 Fastest Growing Flowers to Grow in Your Garden (2022)
- Flowers that Grow in the Shade: The 14 Best Options
- Yellow Perennial Flowers – 12 Recommendations to Plant in Your Garden
- 31 Vegetables That Grow in Shade For Gardens Without Full Sun
- How Long Do Dried Flowers Last?
- The Pros and Cons of Square Foot Gardening