Looking for something red.

Red is the extreme of colour, symbolise blood as the essence of human life. The other day, I was watching TV on shoe crabs. That sea creatures have blue blood. Other little animals like insects, even if they have blood , the blood is not red. So it seems, red is the colour of blood for bigger animals only, to transport nutrients, enzymes, oxygen etc. throughout the body. Then we may want to ask why plants are colourful. The green in most leaves are pigments of chlorophyll that helps plants to capture sun's energy and convert to food for growth. Other colours are adaptations to protect plants from disease and to attract insects, birds and mammals for pollination and distribution of seeds.

There aren't many elements in my garden which are red in colour.

 leaf stalks of lady's finger

 a little red mark at base of lady's finger petals

roselle fruit

Natural dyes can be found right in our own garden. I am sure, those displayed above can be useful as a source of red dye. The followings are some other sources of dye.
most leaves - green
carrot - orange
marigold - yellow
tumeric - yellow/orange
iris roots - grey/black
daylillies - purple
hibiscus flower - red

If we still have small children or grandchildren around, doing experiment on dying fabrics using plants, leaves, roots and flowers from the garden should be fun...

bangchik