Koromiko

Koromiko ki uta

Kōkōmuka ki tai (Harete)

Hebe Stricta / Veronica Stricta (Koromiko)

Hebe Speciosa (Napuka)

This plant with many variations grows on land and beside the sea. Ki uta, ki tai, it reflects the movement and leaf pattern of this plant and the medicinal action it performs in opposite directions. As a creative medium, it can produce a well saturated permanent green yellow that can darken as it ages.

I remember doing tests with this plant and being pleasantly surprised at the colour and also it’s light fastness. Better seen on a lighter paper, it merges with a darker paper, both equally beautiful.

I’ve used this plant often as a rongoā, it releases the past, is great for indigestion (digesting life) and letting go. It has medicinal use for both constipation and diarrhoea, two opposites, like it’s alternating leaves that provide creative inspiration.

A plentiful plant, easy to grow, hardy, you can cut it right back and it will come away again. Actually, it will let you know when it requires culling, it will die back on parts of the plant or perhaps this was just my plant telling me!

In the garden it provides a beautiful intermittent space, a splash of white or pink, the flowers as a dye also carry a vibrant colour especially when pressed between sheets of paper or cotton fabric in an eco-dyeing process.

As I’ve travelled around Aotearoa, I’ve seen many hebes, all different, reflecting the landscapes within which they grow. Most plants I’ve tried for dye have given a yellow to green colour of varying degrees. It has been one of the pleasant surprises of my native tree dye journey! Below is Hebe Speciosa - Napuka.

But, there has been one time where the colour of a specific hebe did not give so readily. I wonder why this is? I had tried at least five species of hebe and all gave up their colour right away. But not this plant. I wonder if it was the soil it was growing in or the type of hebe it was?

As always, experimentation leads to more questions!

Experience

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