Paeonia lactiflora
Description: The peony has glossy, dark green leaves and forms a shrublike mass of multiple plants. The blooms are impossible to miss - the fist-sized flowers large enough to cause many of the stems to droop to the ground. The flowers come in a range of colors including white, pink (many different shades), red, and yellow. In the case of my peonies, they came from my own yard where they were planted quite randomly by a previous owner.
Results: Pictured from left to right are wool with no mordant, wool with Alum mordant, wool with Iron mordant, cotton with Alum mordant, and cotton with Iron mordant. For color reference, the background is a white Bounty paper towel. In the left picture are the White peony results and in the right picture are the Magenta results. The most significant difference is that the Iron mordant cotton dyed with white peony had a blue-grey tint to it.
Plant prep: I collected my flowers in mid-June. The white flowers I cut off about 3" down the stem, selecting flowers which were fully open and not so old that they were dropping their petals. These flowers I processed as they were, leaving the stems and flower heads intact.
The magenta flowers I cut off in the same way, however I selected flowers that were just beginning to drop their petals. For these blooms I used only the colorful petals, pulling them in clumps off from the flowerhead.
Dye process: Basic Recipe
Notes: I found it interesting that there was little different in the colors yielded by the flowers, despite the strong difference in their blooming color. If I dye with peony again I would definitely leave the flowers intact as the slippery, tissue-thin petals are a nightmare to retrieve once cooked. I recommend not letting the yarn mingle with the flowers due to the hassle created by attempting to extract the soggy petals from the fiber.
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