For my birthday this year, my beloved bought me some kangaroo paws. They started blooming about a week after they went into the ground in march, and they are still flowering.
As I started dyeing fabrics for the Leafy Log Cabin workshop (details here), I decided to try some of the oldest blooms in the dye pot. Too exciting!
Decidedly overexcited by this experience, I wandered out on my bike the next day to deadhead the kangaroo paws at a nearby intersection (there are so many). They were not red–and they did not give a print.
But I did find a couple of mulberry trees in fruit, and I had a lovely ride and collected E Cinerea leaves… so a lovely afternoon just the same. How’s your dyeing and foraging going?
Local & Bespoke 
My dye garden is still in it’s infancy, expanding rapidly with the addition of new plants every week. Kangaroo paw I don’t currently have but it’s next on the list. Your prints are very impressive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love planting! I hope your dye garden grows really well, Jenai. And thanks for you generous comment!
LikeLike
Thanks for this. I haven’t tried the actual blooms as a print medium, only roots and the tuber. Will definitely save my dark red blooms now! I wish my neighbourhood lent itself to Euc. cinerea gleanings! I’d be happy to pay a neighbour for his “droppings” if there was one. Did you use any assist for the kangaroo paw printing? Like iron? Was your fabric cotton or silk?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have heard about the roots being a dye stuff, but I can’t picture ever having so many I would dig them up for dyeing! I feel the same way about rhubarb. One of those prints (the first one) is on silk and the other on linen with a soy mordant. I wrapped them around iron tubing. E Cinerea is a lovely one, to be sure, and I’m lucky to have access to a few trees.
LikeLike
Our dyeing season is almost over. But I am waiting for the madder to die back so I can try its roots. I have been growing it for three years in a pot and I am looking forward to see if it has nice red roots. No cangaroo paws over here. In fact I had never heard of that plant before! But it is really pretty, and your prints are, too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I too have madder growing and I think next winter will be the time for me to try dyeing with it. I am looking forward to it, and I hope you have madder success! Kangaroo paw is such a beautiful plant. I am delighted to have shared it with you.
LikeLike
Mary I am doing your class at Susan’s, have just moved and can’t find anything, not my books, a lot of my fabrics. Will you have stuff to sell that I can use? I may have a bit of silk but no cotton.
LikeLike
Great that you can come, Penny! I’ll have fabrics with me, both leaf printed and plain/upcycled, which you can buy and use. You can relax. Bring what you can find and decide what you want to do when you get there. warmly, Mary
LikeLike
Just spotted this afternoon that our mini Kangaroo paws, that survived a very frosty winter in Canberra are budding up! No doubt a desperate survival ploy. I know one has red flowers so I will have to give this a try.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can use the tired and sad old flowers for this Leonie, don’t miss out on the glory! Glad yours are coming along too…
LikeLiked by 1 person
just stunning… i have seen this once before… but was never able to replicate it ! Just love natures way of sucking us in for this colourful journey.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too! Does this mean I have just been lucky this time? There are so many variables in natural dyeing. I have another kangaroo paw bundle waiting for the big reveal. Fingers crossed…
LikeLike
I have never had much success growing kangaroo paw so am double impressed here with the abundance of paw and the incredible dyeing. Plus a mulberry discovery!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that plant breeders and plant scientists have moved the project of kangaroo paw growing in gardens along a lot in my lifetime. We lived in WA when I was a child, and you really needed a lot of knowledge to grow them then, even in places where they might be growing wild not far away. They seem so much more available now, and something has happened to make them a landscaping choice in my area!So–could be your weather of course, but maybe things have changed? Mmmm. Mulberries!
LikeLike