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Gardening

WestMichRad

(2,703 posts)

5. We grew Hopi Red dye amaranth many years ago...

Reply to bigtree (Original post)

Sun Oct 5, 2025, 02:57 PM

Oct 5

… once.
It crossed with the native pigweed, a weed in our garden. Now we have purple leaved “amaranth” (pigweed) as a weed every year. It’s easy to identify, as it’s purplish red, even as a small seedling.
Grew some to maturity this year so we could harvest some of the seed to experiment with it as a natural dye.
So I’ll have plenty of purple weeds in our garden, probably forever!

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Easterncedar

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Highlight:

Bring out your amaranths! [View all] bigtree Oct 5 OP

this is my first year with amaranth rampartd Oct 5 #1

no, haven't gone there yet bigtree Oct 5 #3

It would certainly be worth saving markodochartaigh Oct 5 #2

you're so right! bigtree Oct 5 #4

We grew Hopi Red dye amaranth many years ago... WestMichRad Oct 5 #5

wild! bigtree Oct 5 #6

It's an Amaranthus species for sure WestMichRad Oct 5 #7

I love all the garden pictures you post but this one is exceptionally questionseverything Oct 5 #8

You may lure some ancient Aztecs with that one! GreenWave Oct 5 #9

ooh! bigtree Oct 5 #10