Adopt an Indigo Plant in Los Angeles

indigo-only-poster

Artist Graham Keegan is crowd sourcing an indigo project here in Los Angeles. You can help out by adopting indigo seedlings and growing them out–then harvesting the leaves and joining the other growers for a couple of indigo dyeing fiestas.

We realize this is a highly local post, but it’s a great idea, and we hope it might inspire some of you to do group growing/harvesting projects in your hometowns.

Here’s the 411 from his website, grahamkeegan.com:

Indigo pigment grows naturally in the leaves of a large number of plant species from around the world. This plant, Persecaria Tinctoria, also know as Polygonum Tinctorum, has been a staple source of blue in East Asia for millennia. It is known for being relatively easy to grow. All it needs is lots of sunshine, plenty of water, and some food.

indigo seedlings persecaria tinctoria graham keegan

As an experiment, I’ve germinated a bunch of indigo seeds and want to get the seedlings into as many people’s hands as possible! I hope to spread the wonder about the fact that color can be grown, to raise the consciousness of humanity’s original sources of pigment, and to get people to exercise their thumbs, green or otherwise!

The pigment can be extracted from the mature leaves and used to dye all types of natural fibers. As the season goes on, I’ll be posting harvest and processing instructions, as well as invitations to two separate harvest parties where we pool our collective leaves and do some dyeing!

These seedlings will be available for pickup from my workshop in Silver Lake (Los Angeles, CA) from June 6-8, 2014 (10 AM – 2 PM Daily). They will be ready to be (and should be) transplanted ASAP. I will also have a limited number of growing kits available for purchase for apartment dwellers that will include a suitable pot, soil, and plant food ($12) There is no charge to adopt an indigo seedling. However you must sign the pledge poster to properly care for your plant in order to receive your indigo seedling. You will also receive a copy of the poster to hang in a prominent place in your home, lest you forget about your little baby!

There are a limited number of seedlings available. Please reserve yours by filling out the form below.

For those of you not able to pick up a seedling here in Los Angeles, I am willing to experiment with shipping them directly to you in the mail for the cost of postage. I have zero real world experience with this but have been reading up on the process and believe that it is possible. There is no guarantee that the plants will arrive alive, but I’ll do all that I can on my end to ensure safe travel!

Remember, this is an experiment! If we fail this year, we’ll try again next year!

Please grow along with me!

Graham

We’re going to participate. If you want to, be sure to fill out the form at his website (linked above), and do so soon, because there are only so many seedlings. And make sure to check out Graham’s work and shibori dye workshops.

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6 Comments

  1. Just got my drop spindle in the mail so I’m so excited to have something to dye my soon to be made yarn with!

    This project is everything I like- community based skill and resource sharing.

  2. Pingback: Adopt an Indigo Plant in Los Angeles | NewsSum

  3. What a brilliant idea. I may have to shamelessly steal it* at a later date for my locale. 🙂

    (* with attribution, of course, but you know what I mean…)

  4. We’d love four plants for planting and dye project for school and community coming through the garden.

    If u wish to bring more on a Saturday, many gardeners come thru who
    May be interested to adopt.

    Also the garden can be a general distribution center for this project, if u need! Let us know.

    • Great! But you have to contact Graham directly through the links provided–we don’t have the plants–we’re just helping spread the word. There’s a form on his page to fill out to request plants. Do it soon, because he’s getting a good response and may run out of plants.

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