Coreopsis Dreams: Cultivating Colors

LisaRuth showcases fresh indigo dyed fiber above indigo plants at Rainbow from the Dye Garden workshop, October 2021. Photo by Michiyo Toya

In 2021, my forays into using plants as dye stuff really blossomed!

2021 saw the introduction of a dedicated space at Alemany Farm for growing ancient dye plants. In addition to my role as a longtime farm volunteer, since 2017 my fiber art practice has included using foraged plants from the farm and hillside to dye fiber for color experimentation and to use in my weavings. Building a close relationship to—and investigation of—place is very important to me as a guest on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Learning about native, cultivated, and invasive plants through my art helps ground me in gratitude and informs my stewardship of this place.

I have offered several workshops at Alemany Farm since 2018 introducing others to the basics of dyeing with plants—mostly using foraged plant matter and kitchen scraps. As my practice has expanded, I have become more and more curious about cultivating specific dye plants.This year, my desire to know more coincided with a plan to move the medicinal herbs to a more protected area set farther back from the roadway nestled at the base of the farm’s northern hillside behind the Willow. At the beginning of 2021, this opened up the area at the farm’s front entrance totally dedicated to color.

In the spring, with herbalist Bonnie Rose’s oversight, the “Chamomile Crew” (medicine garden interns) transplanted medicinal plants from the front area of the farm near the tool shed into the newly terraced northwestern hillside. This cohort of herbalists also helped me in February with the propagation of weld (reseda luteola), woad (isatis tinctoria), indigo (persicaria tinctoria), coreopsis (coreopsis tinctoria), and marigold (tagates erecta), plants which we grew in the greenhouse. In April I began to shape a circle for the dye garden, laying irrigation lines, integrating curved outer pathways, and slowly planted out the growing plants in May. Weld and woad went in first, along the front pathway across from the box where Musette’s madder was planted many years ago.

Pollinators on Alemany Farm dye garden plants, 2021.

As I planted, I left the volunteer plantains as guardians around the pathway edge, and lupine and borage as pollinator attractors. Leftover from the medicinal crops, mullein plants became yellow flamed candelabras as sentries. Coreopsis starts and indigo plants went in at the center; the scarlet sage bush was pruned back, and the iris bulbs thinned. Finally, several varieties of marigolds were planted along the pathway edge across from the pond filling out the dye garden. Regular support of watering during the week by our farm interns helped this collection of plants flourish.

The emergence of blooms in late spring showed a range of shades of yellows and oranges, and then pinks in the late summer.

Dye garden plants on silk L to R: madder, coreopsis, fresh indigo, August 2021

But what colors result on fiber when these plants and flowers are used as dyes? The answer: A rainbow! Madder root gives reds and pinks and oranges, coreopsis gives golden yellows to deep oranges, weld leaves and flowers give yellows, marigolds give yellows and shimmery golds, and fresh indigo gives light blue/teals (further exploration of indigo for deep blues is coming in 2022). One of the more exciting results comes from a single plant’s dye pot, with yellows, oranges, and pinks varying due to fabric type (e.g. wool, cotton, silk, bamboo cloth). A friend sent a photo of the Bayeux Tapestry, embroidered in the late 11th century, which he had recently seen in person in Europe. It turns out that the ten colors used to illustrate the historic battles on the tapestry are made from just three plants—madder, woad, and weld—and all of these are growing in the Alemany Farm dye garden.

LisaRuth pointing out dye plants for SF Recreation and Parks Dept. summer camp youth during color walk of farm, June 2021

LisaRuth with San Francisco Recreation and Parks Dept. summer camp youth in the Alemany Farm dye garden, June 2021

This summer, for the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department summer camp kids, I led color walks of the farm’s plants and introduced the dye garden. The walks preceded their dye experiments in the Alemany Outdoor Kitchen, so they were an introduction to the magic of creating color, as they got to see the wide palette that comes from mostly green things. In early October, the dye garden got even more beautiful and colorful: Bonnie Rose made beautiful signs to identify each distinct plant variety to match those in the Medicine Garden. In the middle of the recent October rains, the dye garden itself was a technicolor landscape. The quality of the light and absorption of water made the indigo plants even more red (stems) and pink (flowers). Late afternoon light made the volunteer lupine and the mullein candelabras radiate beyond the purple and yellow of their respective blooms.

Also in October, I brought my dye studio to the farm for the workshop “A Rainbow from the Dye Garden” to share the art of using plants, flowers, and leaves to create unexpected color on textiles. Each attendee was given a notebook with instructions and bibliography, as well as a leaf or cone or flower when they arrived. To start, we walked around the farmscape to find each participant’s chosen plant, and see what color they make on fiber. It’s always fun to introduce people to the farm as a color palette, as well as a food growing space, urban vineyard, medicine cabinet, habitat restoration space, and a place teeming with winged ones (the dye garden alone is host to butterflies, bees, moths, hummingbirds, snakes…).

LisaRuth’s farm dye studio for Rainbow from the Dye Garden workshop at Alemany Farm, October 2021. Colors from L to R: madder root, coreopsis flowers, marigold.

Rainbow from the Dye Garden workshop plant dye results on silk and bamboo (with weld standing in for marigold in upper right corner!)

And, using three dye garden plants—madder root, dried coreopsis blooms, and marigold flowers—we harnessed the first three colors of the rainbow.

Rainbow from the Dye Garden workshop participants hold fibers dyed from fennel, bay laurel leaf, yarrow leaf, loquat leaf at Alemany Farm. Photo by Valerie Reichert

One workshop attendee reported: “I loved learning about native California species* that make good dye plants like manzanita and ceanothus, along with weeds like oxalis and horsetail. And I’m now in love with the beautiful smoky pinks produced by Turkish bay laurel. Reminds me of [dyeing with] avocado [pits]. Also smitten with the oranges and golds I came home with courtesy of the farm’s coreopsis.”

LisaRuth among coreopsis blooms, August 2021

It’s been such a fun project—and a steep learning curve—to create this garden. Journeying this year into planting, growing, and using cultivated dye plants—and sharing it with others—has been so very satisfying! Stay tuned for more workshops in 2022, and opportunities to volunteer in planting and tending next year’s dye plants.

*Please note: I only do dye experimentation with routine prunings of native plants from the farm and my own garden.