harvesting colour – berries of Daphne
With the help of a friend, I have been able to add Daphne berries to my growing list of plant dye experiments. She invited me to harvest some of the berries from her Daphne bushes, before the birds ate them all. We spent an hour picking berries and catching up with one another. I went home with enough berries for my dye pot and some of her excellent photos of the Daphne berries.
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red berries on the bush (photo by L. Cogswell)
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close-up of Daphne berries (photo by L. Cogswell)
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Daphne’s beautiful crimson berries are poisonous, although the birds love to eat them. I was anxious to see what colour they would bring to my growing collection of home-dyed wool. I know from reading that the leaves and twigs of Daphne produce a yellow dye.
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In the dye-vat, the berries quickly lost their colour to the boiling water, making a pale rose-coloured dye.
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And the colour of the wool roving after an hour’s simmer in the pot? A lovely yellowish brown …
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pretty side of poison
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exotic, elliptic
berries among laurel
leaves droop vermillion
toxic pills, birds immune
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spirit of bubbling wells
and water-springs, Daphne
drupes in rainwater seethe
and berries leach rosy
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waters blush at this strange
use of poison, tint the
roving, wool lifts yellow
brown dye from the kettle
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scarlet Daphne berries
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 
When I saw the picture of the berries, I was sure that you’d get a lovely red or pink dye. Until I read this post, I was not familiar with Daphne berries–and after reading it, I don’t think that I’ll look for them.
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Sheryl
August 24, 2014 at 12:54 am
Hi. The poisonous berries make me stop and think. I worry about where to discard the dye water, also about handling the dyed wool during spinning. It is our history and all the experiences of our ancestors that mean we don’t have to worry about everything we touch!!! Jane
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jane tims
August 26, 2014 at 12:05 pm
Beautiful poem, Jane. The berries are so pretty even though that red is a warning to us human inhabitants.
I was soaking black beans for dinner the other night and noticed that the soaking water turned blue. It made me think of you. I also wondered if it would work as blue dye so I looked it up, and found that yes, it will. It’s a beautiful shade of blue, too.
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Robin
August 22, 2014 at 6:04 pm
Guess who’s away to buy some black beans!!! Thanks for the tip. I am getting tired of all the brown. Jane
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jane tims
August 26, 2014 at 12:03 pm