Stories > Indigo and its many delights
Tales of Heartfelt Studio and garden magic
Indigo and its many delights
By: Liz Gaffney
November 2024
An Elephant Photo; Liz Gaffney
Blue, a visible colouring in our landscape. Sea and sky, river and flower and yet elusive when it comes to capturing that colour into a viable lasting range of shades.
In the history of Scotland the plant discovered for that purpose was Woad. I grow this biennial plant in my garden and this year was seed year so next year should be a good cropping time.This year I grew two varieties of Japanese Indigo and also propagated many of the Indigo Tinctoria tree, a graceful and happy plant. It is now mid November and I still am cropping my Indigo plants for fresh leaves and the seed is ripening.
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We think blue with Indigo but in fact it produces many different colours depending on the method of extracting dye-from salted methods to fermentations of vats. A glorious plant to immerse yourself in and easy to grow from seed or cuttings in our Scottish climate. The frost will come and I know these nurtured Japanese plants will not survive our winter. What they leave behind is pure magic.