A vibrant plant with a rich history, Dyers Chamomile (Cota tinctoria) has been used since medieval times to produce a warm lemony yellow. It is also a wonderful plant for bumble bees, solitary bees & hoverflies: all are gardeners’ friends. The aromatic, silvery-green, feathery foliage is covered with pretty yellow daisy-like flowers.
🌸 Flowering: summer
📏 Height: 40-100cm
🌿 Short-lived perennial, best grown as a biennial
💧 Drought tolerant
Sow: in spring or early autumn, in trays or small pots, either surface sow and seal in a bag until germination OR lightly cover, keep warm. Sowing in autumn produces larger plants but you will need to over winter in a well-ventilated, cool frost-free place as necessary.
Grow: when they are large enough to handle, pot up individually into 8cm pots and grow on in a cool frame before planting out into a sunny position with well-drained soil. In rich soil they grow lusher and taller, but can become floppy. They are quite happy in poorer, well-drained soil, where they won't grow as tall. If the plants are cut back close to the ground before the flowering finishes, in September, they will produce some new growth before the growing season ends, which helps the plants to overwinter.
Enjoy: bright, strong yellow flowers: that’s the reason Dyers Chamomile is also known as Golden Marguerite. Grow yourself a patch and you'll have plenty of cheerful colour for the garden, the vase and, of course, the dye pot.
🎨 Natural dye plant
- The yellow flower heads produce warm lemon-yellow shades.
- Pick the larger mature flowers regularly through summer. They can be used fresh, dried or frozen, so you can gradually build up enough for your dye pot. Regular picking also encourages the plants to keep flowering.
- You'll need plenty of flowers for dyeing, so if that's your main reason for growing Dyers Chamomile, give yourself a small patch rather than growing just one or two plants.
- For a first dye bath, aim for roughly twice to four times the weight of flowers to the dry weight of fabric. Use more if the flowers are fresh.
- For cotton, linen or hemp, prepare the fabric first with an aluminium lactate mordant or a soymilk binder.
- Simmer the flower heads in water for about an hour, strain, then add the prepared, pre-soaked fabric and simmer for another hour.
- The dye bath can be used again, although subsequent colours will be paler.
- The yellow has reasonably good lightfastness.
🏡 In your garden
- Cottage and informal gardens
- Mediterranean plantings
- Flower borders and beds
- Banks and slopes
- Cutting gardens
- Dyers gardens
✂️ Cut flower
- The cheerful yellow flowers are lovely in a vase, although each one you cut is one less for the dye pot. Decisions, decisions!
- Fresh vase life of 7 to 14 days
🐝 Pollinator friendly
RHS Plants for Pollinators recommended
📜 Traditional uses
Dyers Chamomile has been used as a dye plant since medieval times, producing its characteristic warm yellow shades
💡 Did you know?
Cota tinctoria and Anthemis tinctoria are exactly the same plant. Cota tinctoria is now the accepted botanical name, but you'll still frequently find Dyers Chamomile and its garden varieties listed under the older name Anthemis tinctoria.
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