Many varieties of coreopsis can be used as a natural dye. The one I grow and therefore am most familiar with is the bicolor variety (Coreopsis tinctoria) which has dark red petals in the center and yellow outer edges. The plants are easy to grow and are prolific producers of flowers.

Quick facts:

Annual

Germination time: 5-12 days

Planting depth: plant on surface or lightly cover

Light: full sun

Spacing: 12”

Days to flower from seed: 65

Height & width: 3’ x 2’

CULTIVATION

I’ve experimented with both sowing as direct seed and by transplanting and have come to prefer the direct seed method. I sow the seeds directly into the garden, the last week of May or the first week of June which is about a week before our average last frost date. The plants tend to lodge once they’ve become fully grown and I’ve found that by sowing them closer together they help support each other. I thin the seedlings to about 10”-12” apart. The plants will begin flowering in mid-July and by mid-August, they’re fully grown and loaded with blooms.

HARVESTING

I begin harvesting coreopsis flowers as soon as the first ones are mature and I harvest every 2-3 days consistently throughout the season. With regular consistent harvesting, the plants will continue to produce copious amounts of blooms right up to the first frost.

A dye bath can be set up with either fresh or dried flowers. If you’re looking for information about how to naturally dye with coreopsis (and other dye flowers) I shared my favorite methods and recipes in this blog post. I also wrote a dye flower recipe PDF that can be purchased here which gives more extensive advice regarding how to shift the flower colors with iron and indigo and how to achieve more colorfast results with flowers. I plan to write a post about how I dry and cure dye flowers eventually so stay tuned. If you’d like to give Coreopsis a try (I 10/10 recommend : ) we have seeds available in the shop (link to Dyer’s Coreopsis seed below) along with many other dye plant seeds and dyestuffs.