I did a little weekend trip to the summer cottage and dyed with heather for the second time. I was curious to see what the difference is when I use heather from the beginning of June and from late August.
I don’t think this is the most scientific of experiments, but I did collect heather from the same place I collected the last time and I also used the same wool yarn. The yarn on the right is from the early June and the one on the left is from the middle of August. The colour was definitely more intensive in June, but the second colour is still beautiful.
I also coloured grey wool yarn and the result was beautiful green colour. Heather has quickly become one of my favourite plats to use in natural dyeing.
I have noticed that this Norwegian wool yarn (Viking Naturgarn) repeats the colours really beautifully. I mordanted the yarn beforehand with alum (read about it here). Before starting to boil the heather I let it soak in the water overnight, after that the process was similar to dyeing with lupine (read about it here.)
The Easy Blues 
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As a Scot living in Australia it’s impossible to grow Heather here.
Do you know if it possible to dry the Heather then grind it to a powder then use it to dye wool . Merino and Alpaca are the biggest fleece supplies here.
Regards
Jenny
A late reply to you. I’m sorry I have not been active here. That is a good question. 🤔 I’m not sure. I have never tried, but it might. I have heard that freezing leafs works sometimes. Sorry that I don’t have a better answear.