Dyers Border

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 NameCommon Names
Agrimonia eupatoriaAgrimony, sticklewort
Alcea roseaHollyhock
Alkanna tinctoriaAlkanet, Spanish bugloss
Anchusa officinalisCommon Alkanet, Bugloss
Anthemis tinctoriaDyers camomile, Marguerite
Calendula officinalisMarigold, pot marigold
Carthamnus tinctoriaSafflower
Crocus sativusSaffron
Cytisus scoparius
syn: Sarothamnus scoparius
Dyers broom
Dipsacus fullonum ssp fullonumFullers teasel
Genista tinctoriaDyers greenwood, Dyers broom. Waxen woad
Iris foetidissimaGladdon Iris, stinking Iris, Gladwin Iris, Roast Beef
Iris germanica var florentinaOrris
Isatis tinctoriaWoad, Dyers woad
Lilium martagonTurks cap lily
Pentaglottis sempervirensAlkanet, Evergreen
Polypodium vulgareBrake root
Pulsatilla vulgarisPasque flower
Ranunculus ficariaLesser celandine
Reseda luteolaWeld, dyers weld, Dyers rocket
Rosa alba ‘Great Maiden’s Blush’Rose, Cuisse de Nymph
Rosa damascena trigintipetalaRose, Kazanlik, Rose a parfume de Grasse
Rubia tinctoriaMadder, Dyers’ madder

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