The Dye & Fiber Garden

  Japanese Indigo Growing In The Garden

Of the 72+ indigo seeds I planted this spring, I got a whopping 17 plants that actually grew. Something tells me this isn't nearly enough to do anything with, but I'll tend to them anyway and see what happens. Maybe I can dye a finger or two.

What happened? I was not paying attention is what happened. I thought I was purchasing one packet of fresh seeds. When the box arrived, I was wondering why it was so large - I mean I thought I had ordered a small packet of seeds. But when I opened up the box - there was one lonely indigo plant. Ugh. I went back to the supplier's website and sure enough - it was one plant that I had ordered. They didn't even have seeds for this year. So where did I get my seeds from? From the same supplier, but it was the previous year. From what I understand, Indigo seeds (Japanese Indigo seeds at least), must be fresh in order for them to germinate. I found out the hard way.

The cotton is growing nicely - one plant is huge, one plant is medium, one plant is small and one plant is dead - LOL

Cotton Flower Bud Forming

They are certainly getting enough heat and sun. I recently had a tree removed from the other side of the fence because it had been so badly damaged from the monster snow storms we had this past winter. Now the garden gets so much light. The plants love it. I just noticed the other day that the large cotton plant has flower buds forming.

I'm growing the four three cotton plants just for fun, and to see how they fare in this part of the country.