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Botanist Florent Valentin in Lauris
© AFP/File Anne-Christine Poujoulat

"Today, at a time when we want to protect the environment and reduce our reliance on oil, these colour-producing plants can provide an alternative," said Florent Valentin, a botanist at Europe's only conservatory garden of such plants.

Here in the southern town of Lauris, in the Luberon, some 300 plants from around the world are being carefully nurtured and studied for their dye-making possibilities.

An Indian rose produces a sweet peach colour used in drinking cordials, a deep blue comes from the indigofera, a shrub which occurs in tropical and subtropical regions, while vibrant reds come from the rubicaceae family which includes the madder and coffee plants.

According to experts, the earliest written record about dyestuffs dates from China in 2,600 BC, and up until the 19th century plants and other vegetable and mineral matter were the only source of dyes.

Huge quantities of shellfish for example were needed to produce a purple dye, which due to its cost was used for religious and royal robes, and made it one of the rarest colours available.

Maud Rapenne
© AFP/File Anne-Christine Poujoulat

The frescos in Pompey, which can still be seen despite being buried by volcanic lava in 79 AD, were coloured with dyes made from madder roots, a plant with small star-shaped leaves.

And even today the South American lipstick tree, or bixa orellana, is used to colour the robes of Buddhist monks in Asia, or provide the deep orange skin for Dutch cheese.

But many of the secrets of colour-producing plants have been lost with the growing dominance of the oil-based synthetic colours, which are cheap and fast to produce.

So on the hillsides of a castle in Lauris, the conservatory run by the Garance association is trying to revive interest in natural dyes.

"We are carrying out an inventory of these plants. We are also trying to motivate farmers to go back to growing them by putting them in touch with users, such as decorators and designers," said administrator Maud Rapenne.

The French Institute for Textiles and Clothing is also carrying out tests to see how such colours withstand the rigours of modern life, such as washing machines and heavy duty soap-powders.

"Couleur Garance lays the foundations for prospective modern-day usage of these colours, contributes to the establishment of a discipline involving dyeing plants and encourages the fabrication and usage of plant-base colours," Garance says in its promotional material.

A project is already underway in Mali, where Garance is supporting the production of textiles dyed with natural indigo, and also hopes to build a device for extracting larger quantities of blue from the plant.

A view of the Lauris conservatory garden
© AFP/File Anne-Christine Poujoulat

The founder of the conservatory, Michel Garcia, has also been working with cosmetics manufacturers, as well as creating a line of wall paints based around natural pigments.

It is not always immediately obvious what colour dye a plant will produce. Yellow comes from thyme which has purple flowers, while onion skins give a deep burnished gold.

"The most colourful plants are not necessarily those which produce the best dyes, or even provide the same colour as their flowers," said Valentin.

Despite its bright red flowers, the pomegranate tree gives up a yellow or black from its fruits, used to dye carpets in Turkey.

Natural dyes remain more expensive than synthetic products, but as extraction techniques are developed and improved the cost is coming down.

"We propose a reflection on the riches of the plant world and on the place it can hold in a society respectful of the environment and the long-term use of earth's natural resources," says Garance.

The garden's administrators believe changing habits plus stricter regulations will force industries to take another look at the world of natural dyes.

"The European Union's Reach programme, which will force industry to reduce how many chemical molecules it uses, will contribute to a return to vegetable-based dyes," said Rapenne.

Within the next 10 years, natural dyes could represent 3.0 percent of the global textile market, Garance believes.

Meanwhile specialists from around the world are to gather in Hyderabad, India, in November to swop ideas and know-how.

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