The first time I tried using purple iris as a dye, I scavenged the spent blooms from my neighbor’s green waste pile. Hers were so dark they were almost black, so I wasn’t sure at first if these would contain enough colorant. But they do! Unlike other flowers that have to be picked fresh and then dried, these are easy to collect after they’ve finished blooming and have shriveled up on their own.

It does take a lot to produce much color. After this clump finished flowering, we dug up about half of them to spread them out. Lets hope that next year we’ll have even more!