September is a golden month. Most of the fall blooming flowers are yellow, the trees are just starting to think about turning...and
...it's goldenrod season.
There are dozens of varieties of goldenrod and we have many of them here. They bloom at different times and are different heights. It makes things interesting.
I dry goldenrod just before the flowers open and then I can save it for dyeing later in the winter.
It dyes beautiful golds and yellows on pretty much every fiber, except linen, which resists most dyes.
Alum is the best mordant for yellows and golds. The olives in the pic here were the result of using iron and copper as mordants.
The bees also love goldenrod. It's a valuable late season nectar source and the bee yard smells distinctly of goldenrod honey this year. I love that smell.
