Much of the remaining hedgerows around my village are hawthorn and during lockdown time in May, were full of blossom both white and pink. and so being careful to sample only little from a wide area of hedgerow, I took enough to test out the dye from blossom separately from leaves and twigs.
​The blossom was cut off from the twigs and simmered for an hour, fibres added then allowed to cool down overnight.

The leaves and twigs were cut up into 5cm pieces and left initially in a bucket overnight covered with freshly boiled water.  In the morning this was heated to a simmer for an hour, strained of plant vegetation, fibres added to the dye and allowed to cool overnight (300%wof)

I was surprised how dark the yellow appeared from the blossom, but then I did use about 500% wof.  The dusky pink of the unmordanted fibre and salmon from alum mordanted fibre were lovely and something I would try to repeat. There should be enough tannin in the leaves and twigs released that I don't necessarily need the fibres mordanted The dusky pink only seems to be produced from un mordanted fibre, and only when it was not heated up too much or for too long.

Testament to the community spirit of my village, when I asked for permission to access neighbours' gardens in this current lockdown to sample their fruit trees, I was inundated with generous offerings and a little curiosity I suspect.  I explained my project and natural dyeing exploration, and was welcomed in to inspect their trees, while observing social distancing of course!

I was able to sample the leaves from the following trees - apple, cherry, plum, damson, fig and quince

The colours of unmordanted fibre (left photo above: top to bottom: cherry, fig, plum, damson) ) were fairly beige to pale olive probably as expected, although the damson leaves did give me quite a vibrant lime green.  The alum mordanted fibres (right photo top to bottom: cherry, fig, plum, apple, quince) were brighter and more yellow in general.  The surprise was the yarn out of the pot containing quince leaves only - such a lovely coral colour.  The unmordanted wool gauze samples showed a similar story,

I was lucky enought to ask a neighbour at the time he was having his damson trees pruned and so I came away with sizeable branches from which to remove the leaves and extract the dye.

The damson branches and twigs were cut into a bucket, recently boiled water added to cover and left overnight. Appreciable dye could be seen in the bucket at this point   The next morning this was transferred to an urn, heated to a simmer for 1 hour, then twigs removed.  The fibres were added to the liquid and simmered for a further hour then left to cool overnight.  All the fibres had taken up the dye thanks to the tannin from the twigs, but the alum mordanted fibres were brighter and more coral than pink.

There were many unripened damsons on the pruned branches and so I treated them separately, squashing each fruit and simmering for 1 hour, adding fibre and simmering for a further hour.  Result - no detectable colour change in the fibre.despite there being 300% wof present relative to the dyeing fibre.

At this time of year the elder tree just outside our back wall was just coming into flower but I chose to collect the leaves for dyeing. Maybe later in the season I'll tackle the berries!

The gauze was not mordanted but the yarns were mordanted with alum, the one on the right modified after with copper water.
About 200%wof was used and I was suprised just how lovely and bright the green was.  I'd begun to expect rather lichen shades.

I had to stray over a couple of fields of footpaths to come across an accessible alder, identified from its little cones.
I collected some leaves and also some bark from fallen branches lying underneath.  The leaves were put in a bucket and steeped initially overnight in freshly boiled water then brought to a simmer for 1 hour the next morning. the leaves were strained out and alum mordanted fibres added, simmered for 1 hour and left overnight to cool.
The bark was treated the same except It steeped in a bucket for 3 days before heating. Since there would be tannin from the bark I did not mordant the fibres here.

From top down, the photo shows alder bark unmodified and modified with copper, then alder leaves unmordanted and alum mordanted.
​A couple of days later I went back and found  lots of fallen alder cones.  Put in a bucket I added recently boiled water to cover and left overnight.  After only a few minutes I could see the water had turned a rich brown.  All the contained seeds and oils had been released from the cones and there was quite an aroma by the morning.  I brought this mixture to a simmer for an hour, strained the liquid and added my fibres.  After an hour's simmer I let it cool down.  The fibres both unmordanted and mordanted with alum were a rich golden brown which turned a lovely dark black/brown when modified in heated iron water.

Testing out the dye from willow leaves was a bit of a suprise for me as I got lovely orange tones on the alum mordanted fibres (left yarn and gauze) which turned a rich brown when modified with copper (right yarn)

I was able to sample 2 or three different copper beech trees around our village and I wanted to see if the degree of copper-ness in their leaves affected the dye.  I had heard that the leaves could give pink shades to the dyed fibres.

In each dye pot for a different tree I found that unmordanted yarn and wool gauze turned brown and alum mordanted yarn (bottom skein in each photo) was quite an olive green.  No pinks unfortunately!  The samples in the left photo came from a copper beech with slightly greener leaves but I didn't find this produced any change in the dye.  The fibres were only paler because the dyepot contained 200%wof versus 300%wof for the samples on the right.  A different mordant might have changed the results of course.

​

No shortage of trees around me to sample, but I picked those with blossom first of all - 

Gorgeous examples around both with white and pink blossom.   I wondered if this colour difference would be reflected in the dye produced.  I collected about 150g of each type - cut up the florets into a bucket, covered with hot water and left overnight.  I brought back to simmer for 30mins in the morning, strained out the plant veg and simmered fibre (alum mordanted) in each dyepot for 1 hour, left overnight to cool.

The white blossom gave a muted yellow (top yarn) while the pink blossom (bottom yarn) which i expected to be very similar was distinctively quite a bright green. Both yarns were mordanted with alum. The un mordanted wool gauze were equally different.

I hadn't read of getting much dye from oak leaves so I concentrated on the bark.  Searching under this wonderful tree by the public footpath, I found some old fallen branches and stripped bark, as well as some acorn tops from last year.
The bark I broke up as best I could and let it steep in water at room temperature for 10 days along with a hank of yarn.  Bark and yarn then removed, and the dye liquid heated to a simmer for 1 hour.   Yarn and gauze were added to this pot, simmered for a further hour, then cooled.

I steeped the acorn tops (30g) and un mordanted yarn initially in freshly boiled water. After 4 days they smelt horrible so I didn't feel like heating them up further.  The yarn hadn't appeared to change in colour after this time, unlike the sample in steeped bark after 4 of the 10 days

Considering I was extracting dye from very little bark the warm brown produced, particularly when the wool was premordanted with copper, would make this worth repeating.