Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia)

Lavender is an aromatic plant widely grown in gardens across the UK, valued for its fragrant purple flowers and silvery-green foliage. While it is most often associated with summer, the dried flower heads that remain on the plant through autumn and winter can still be gathered and used for natural dyeing.

For winter dyeing, dried lavender heads are a useful material because they retain both colour and aromatic oils even after the flowers have faded.

Dried flower heads collected from the plant in winter produce soft, muted tones such as pale olive, gentle yellow-browns, and warm beige shades rather than purple.

Lavender responds well to mordants and modifiers. Alum tends to give lighter golden or beige tones, while iron can shift the colours toward olive greens and soft greys.

Lavender dyes tend to work especially well on wool and silk, though cotton and linen may produce softer, lighter shades. Because the dried flower heads persist on the plant through winter, lavender can be an accessible and sustainable source of natural dye material during colder months when fewer fresh plants are available.

Images show tests using silk, cotton, linen and wool samples.
Samples where tested with no mordant, alum mordant and iron mordants as well as using a soda ash modifier after dyeing