Month: November 2009

Thanksgiving and first Oxalis

Posted on | by jamie_work_admin | Leave a Comment on Thanksgiving and first Oxalis

Earlier this week I picked the first Oxalis of it’s – the Oxalis’ season. I don’t think that this really qualifies as a “season” but what I’ve observed locally is: Fennel blooms and continues more-or-less to late Spring to Fall and Oxalis blooms late in Fall and continues to Spring. (Glove on the hand because I am a total weather-wimp.)

And since I’m writing this on the (United States) Thanksgiving Day holiday, I will note that one can always be thankful for a consistant, reliable dye plant that dyes wool, cotton and probably things I haven’t tried yet. (And the bees like it too!)

Powered by ScribeFire.

More Adventures with Woad and Weld or where have all the Dicots gone

Posted on | by jamie_work_admin | Leave a Comment on More Adventures with Woad and Weld or where have all the Dicots gone

gone to Eudicots every one… 

Since I spend a lot of my so-called spare time working with or around plants – dye plants especially –  I decided it was time to understand how they work. This fall I signed up for “Botany for Gardeners” at my local university extension program. (Brian Capon’s Botany for Gardeners –  a very good read.) 

Possible conversation starter: apparently with all the DNA sequencing there has been a shakeup up in botanical classification. The dicots (two-leaf seedling thing vs the one-leaf monocot thing) some of us grew up with (and had a couple of semesters ago) are now eudicots (new two-leaf seedling thing). Who knew.

My standard dye plants are often categorized as “weeds”  so I end up babying along other people’s unwanted garden invaders, Wood Sorrel/Oxalis, Fennel, etc. Recently I’ve been nursing along (what better be) the next batch Woad and Weld.

Weld seedlings:

 

Woad seedlings:

 

Powered by ScribeFire.