Several years ago I bought seeds of Genista tinctoria or dyer´s broom. Only a few germinated. I know now it is better to soak the seeds a little bit before sowing. Three plants survived although the circumstances were not ideal in a pot on my balcony.
When I got an allotment I put them in the soil. But again it has difficulties to grow because the new sprouts were eaten. By snails? birds? insects? I replanted them last year in a big flower pot with sandy soil. And look, this year it is flowering and ready to harvest and try the dyestuff!
The pictures below are from the making of the dyebath and the dyed wool.
I removed the dyestuff after the extraction, but kept it apart. I used 50 grams of premordanted wool to 80 grams of dyestuff for the first dyeing.
In the second dyeing I reentered the dyestuff in the bath, and dyed 30 grams wool almost the same color bright yellow. The same again in the third dyeing.
In the fourth dyeing the color became pale and duller. This was several days from the beginning of the dyeing.
Dyers broom contains the same coloring components as weld and sawworth, but somewhat less concentrated. They belong to the fastest yellows. For bright yellows it is important to keep the temperature below 80*C, because in higher temperatures the color can become dull. I learned this through Riihivilla´s blog, wich is a very good source for me as a dyer.
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