Great garden plants for colour

Here at the Swiss Gardening School we grow a wide range of plants for our natural dye course, and some of them make fantastic garden plants as well as making beautiful dyes.

Gorse is one of our favourites, as it also supports a wide range of beneficial insects, and hosts caterpillars, other insects and even birds in the spiky branches. The dyer's gorse, or Genista tinctoria, creates the best colours, but any gorse flowers will make a very pretty bright yellow.