(Persicaria tinctoria)

Growing your own blue is intensely satisfying! There is nothing quite like watching your project oxidize from a murky yellowish green to crisp blue before your very eyes! This year we are excited to be offering two varieties.

Japanese Indigo: Our Japanese indigo population is a diverse mixture of pink and white flowered genetics. The leaves are intermediate-to-long, and the plants are very robust and bushy. We’ve been actively improving this mix for seven years.

Chijimiba Japanese Indigo: This uniform variety is more upright than our Japanese indigo mix, and has dark-green, waxy leaves with a cute crinkle to the leaf margin. We’ve heard it referred to as “ripple-leaf” indigo. The strong waxy leaf makes it a great candidate for fresh leaf dyeing because the leaves are slower to break down after harvest. This same trait means it needs a higher minimum temperature for fermentation extraction, as the leaf will resist fermentation for longer than other varieties. Our seed stock for this variety came from Britt Boles of Seaspellfiber, who is a phenomenal resource for all things indigo!

Start seeds indoors and transplant to 1' apart after danger of frost. We like to slightly over-seed our flats, and then select for the most vigorous seedlings. After your plants become productive, you can cut and come again throughout the season.

If you are new to dyeing with indigo, Fibershed has some incredible educational materials on their website, including this PDF The Production of Indigo Dye from Plants (which is what we follow for fermentation extractions).

If you want a quick and easy indigo project that doesn’t require any chemicals, fermenting, or reducing, fresh leaf indigo dyeing is a great gateway project, and Liz Spencer of The Dogwood Dyer has a great tutorial for this method found here.

Packet: 150 seeds