The border opposite the Nosegay Garden features plants commonly grown for their ability to produce dyes for food, drink and cloth and to make inks and paints, for manuscripts. Different parts of the plant yield the dye and were either mixed with alum, water and other plants to create the required colour, or used alone. Examples include celandine where the petals produce a yellow dye which was used in manuscript paint and marjoram, where the flower heads were used to dye linen purple.
The inclusion of dyers’ herbs is particularly appropriate for a garden in this region, given that East Anglia has close links with the cloth trade.
Botanical Name | Common Names |
Agrimonia eupatoria | Agrimony, sticklewort |
Alcea rosea | Hollyhock |
Alkanna tinctoria | Alkanet, Spanish bugloss |
Anchusa officinalis | Common Alkanet, Bugloss |
Anthemis tinctoria | Dyers camomile, Marguerite |
Calendula officinalis | Marigold, pot marigold |
Carthamnus tinctoria | Safflower |
Crocus sativus | Saffron |
Cytisus scoparius syn: Sarothamnus scoparius | Dyers broom |
Dipsacus fullonum ssp fullonum | Fullers teasel |
Genista tinctoria | Dyers greenwood, Dyers broom. Waxen woad |
Iris foetidissima | Gladdon Iris, stinking Iris, Gladwin Iris, Roast Beef |
Iris germanica var florentina | Orris |
Isatis tinctoria | Woad, Dyers woad |
Lilium martagon | Turks cap lily |
Pentaglottis sempervirens | Alkanet, Evergreen |
Polypodium vulgare | Brake root |
Pulsatilla vulgaris | Pasque flower |
Ranunculus ficaria | Lesser celandine |
Reseda luteola | Weld, dyers weld, Dyers rocket |
Rosa alba ‘Great Maiden’s Blush’ | Rose, Cuisse de Nymph |
Rosa damascena trigintipetala | Rose, Kazanlik, Rose a parfume de Grasse |
Rubia tinctoria | Madder, Dyers’ madder |