I grew safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) for the first time last season and was a bit smitten by its rock-star style. Historically, safflower was amongst one of the first plants ever cultivated by humans in the Mesopotamian region as early as 2500 BCE and ancient Egyptians were using it as a dye as far back as 3500 BCE. Safflower is a thistle-like annual plant in the Asteraceae family with stiff serrated leaves that are vicious to handle. Safflower is a funky and beautiful plant to look at but requires gloves to handle it. It grows well here in our arid high-desert environment but I’m not sure how it would do in a rainy climate. The edible petals are delicious and are often used as a saffron substitute.
QUICK FACTS:
Annual
Germination time: 7-14 days
Seed planting depth: 1/4”
Light: full sun
Spacing: 9”
Days to flower from seed: 75
Plant height: 18-24”
CULTIVATION
It’s best to direct seed safflower into the garden rather than to transplant it. Wait until the danger of frost has passed and the soil temperature has warmed to around 65°F. The seeds should be buried to a depth of only 1/4”. Once the seedlings emerge and have grown to a few inches, thin them to about 9” apart. The plants are hearty and grow pretty quickly, especially in the days leading up to the summer solstice.
HARVESTING
Like all the flowers in my dye gardens, I begin harvesting the safflower flowers as soon as the first are developed which encourages more blooms to set. As previously mentioned gloves are a necessity when handling these plants. I use scissors to snip the flower heads leaving only a very short stem. Safflowers can hang out a lot longer than the other more tender flowers in the dye gardens so I harvest them only about once per week throughout the season. The seeds need about 30 days to mature so in mid to late August I stop harvesting the flowers to let the seeds develop. Here in our arid climate, the flower heads dry out quickly. I dry them either in tiered hanging mesh drying racks or simply on a canvas tarp on the floor. Once dry I store them in cardboard boxes or paper bags until I’m ready to go through the tedious task of plucking the petals from the flower heads.
safflower flower heads drying on my studio floor on a tarp & removing the petals from the flower heads
I hope to write a blog post soon explaining how I naturally dye with the petals. We have many natural dye seeds and natural dyes available in our shop. See below for a link to our safflower seed. Cheers!
