Dye plants - the seeds

This spring I started studying dyeing plants, in order to make a selection that I thought was good for a dyer's garden. I gathered seeds for all of them and passed them on to Carlota, who germinated and transplanted them to the garden, later.
Since the time we could spare to this subject this year was very limited (don't forget we're growing wool, silk and flax in situ simultaneously!), some plants did fine and others didn't. Madder was one that didn't make it this year, but we'll get to next time.

There are many, many online shops that sell seeds for dyeing plants, but you need to know exactly what species you're looking for, as most of them won't tag them as specific for dyeing.
The selection I made to start our garden included some classic dyers, some wild ones and some that are more known for other attributes than their color. I wanted to say that although there are plants that are icons in these dyeing matters, most of them are used mainly for other purposes.
I made a point of picking varieties that are well adapted to our climate and only made an exception for the japanese indigo because, you know, it's INDIGO (as you may already know, it loved being here!). For the record, here's my shortlist:

- Japanese índigo (Persicaria tinctoria)
- Woad (Isatis tinctoria)
- Madder (Rubia tinctorum)
- Dyer's chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria)
- Dyer's coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)
- Dyer's weld (Reseda luteola)
- Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)
- Yarrow (Achillea milefolium)
- St.John's-wort (Hipericum perforatum)
- Lady's bedstraw (Galium verum)
- French marigold (Tagetes patula)
- Purple coneflower (Equinacea purpurea)
- Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)
- Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis)

If you're looking to start your own garden and need seeds for specific plants, one of the most interesting places to take a look at is Couleur Garance's online shop. Couleur Garance has the biggest garden dedicated to dyeing plants, with about 250 species, which can be visited in Lauris. Every year they gather the seeds from their own plants, not only to resow, but also to share. This is where we got our índigo  and woad seeds, for example.
Sementes de Portugal is an online shop that specializes in emblematic species of the portuguese flora and sell some of the varieties I listed, like Dyer's weld or St.John's wort.
Another shop I liked was Seedaholic. They offer a great selection of plants adapted to the european climate, give out lots of informations about each species and their prices are great.
Wildcolours is another option. They specialize in natural dyeing and sells seeds for the most popular plants, like madder, woad and etc.