Open-pollinated. Annual. A beautiful native ornamental that dyes a full palette of color from yellows and greens to rusts and browns—and even black, depending on the combination of plant parts and mordants. Yellow 1½" cosmos-like flowers with reddish-brown centers top 2–4' branching stems flourish in full sun and make excellent cuts. The more you harvest, the more blooms will appear. Happily for dyers, you can dry the blooms to accumulate enough for a dye batch. Low-maintenance and rugged. Good for less cultivated areas such as open spaces, roadsides and borders, competes well with grasses and reseeds freely in optimal conditions. Tolerates drought. Direct seed outdoors after frost. ~2,200 seeds/g. ③
Dyer’s Coreopsis Dye Plant
Dyer’s Coreopsis Dye Plant
Open-pollinated. Annual. A beautiful native ornamental that dyes a full palette of color from yellows and greens to rusts and browns—and even black, depending on the combination of plant parts and mordants. Yellow 1½" cosmos-like flowers with reddish-brown centers top 2–4' branching stems flourish in full sun and make excellent cuts. The more you harvest, the more blooms will appear. Happily for dyers, you can dry the blooms to accumulate enough for a dye batch. Low-maintenance and rugged. Good for less cultivated areas such as open spaces, roadsides and borders, competes well with grasses and reseeds freely in optimal conditions. Tolerates drought. Direct seed outdoors after frost. ~2,200 seeds/g. ③
Additional Information
Dye Plants
Susanne Grosjean, of the Wednesday Spinners group in Downeast Maine, says, “You need only three dye plants: indigo for blue, madder for red and weld for yellow. Three primary colors, all excellent color-fast dye plants.”
See also: Lady’s Mantle, Tango Cosmos, and Soapwort
Flowers
All flowers are open-pollinated except where noted.
Days in parentheses after a variety indicate days to first bloom.
Germination Testing
For the latest results of our germination tests, please see the germination page.
Our Seeds are Non-GMO
All of our seeds are non-GMO, and free of neonicotinoids and fungicides. Fedco is one of the original companies to sign the Safe Seed Pledge.