Colour therapy

Before synthetic dyes, we turned to plants to provide colour in our lives. Steph Wetherell meets a Devon farmer who is not only growing gorgeous dye plants - she's helping people bloom too

- Steph Wetherell

Towers of tiny pale yellow flowers sway in the wind, the air thrumming with scores of pollinators. At the base of each spike, the clusters of flowers have already been replaced by seeds; it's these seeds that hold this plant's secret.

This is weld, a plant that has been used by humans for thousands of years to impart a vibrant yellow colour to fibres. From colouring the robes of the Roman Vestal Virgins to helping produce the green clothes worn by Robin Hood's band, weld has played a key role in the fabrics of our past.

For a growing community of natural dyers across the UK, plants like weld also have an important role in the future of dyeing.

In a quiet valley in Devon I find Sophie Holt, founder of Pigment Organic Dyes. Pigment is one of five 'microenterprises' based on a corner of a 60-hectare farm, surrounded by low hills filled with the chatter of birds and the myriad shades of ancient woodland. Sophie is harvesting crackerjack marigolds, their yellow and orange heads bursting with layers of overlapping petals. "They always remind me of Indian weddings," she says with a smile, explaining that the flowers will dye fibres a beautiful mustard colour.

As she plucks flowerheads and places them in harvesting crates, I ask her how she got started in horticulture.

"I began helping social enterprises and charities with their marketing, and through that discovered care farming," she explains, telling me how care farms provide therapeutic services for people with learning disabilities or mental-health issues alongside food growing. "I thought, instead of doing a market-garden care farm where we're growing veg, I could grow dye plants; I recognised there were very few UK-grown dye plants on the market." Following a successful pilot last winter, Sophie's vision is now in action.