Scholar in Lotro: making dye

Making dyes in Lotro
Most scholars are looking for artifacts, so they have to search in ruins and - mostly - have to kill a lot of evil creatures or man. This kind of scholar specialization can be called an archeologist. If you want that way, click on this link!

If you don't like such an aggressive way to become a scholar, and you are more of the docile type, you can always become a gardener or a botanist. Why? because these specializations are both interesting to make - and sell (!) colorful dyes.

Making dyes

An alternative way to level your proficiency as a scholar, is making dyes. This can be done by looking for rare plant-species (the way of the botanist) or making dye ingredients by harvesting crops on a farm field (the way of the gardener). Both ways are explained below.


A quick overview of dyes:

Color	Tier	Ingredient	Source
Black	5	Rust dye critical success	Ancient Iron
Black	6	Ancient Iron Oxides	Ancient Iron
Burgundy	4	Amaranth Petal	Amaranth or Wild Flower Field
Crimson	6	Juicy Strawberry & Sienna	Strawberry Field & Tin deposit
Dark Green	4	Onion Skin	Green Onion Field
Ered Luin Blue	6	Woad Plant & Indigo Plant	Woad Plant/Wild Flower Field & Indigo Plant
Evendim Blue	4	Bluebottle Petal & Indigo Plant	Bluebottle Field Wild Flower Field & Indigo Plant
Forest Green	4	Onion Skin & Lily-of-the-Valley Leaf	Green Onion Field & Lily-of-the-Valley Field/Wild Flower Field
Gold	1	Yarrow Root	Yarrow Root or Wild Flower Field
Grey	2	Iris Root	Iris or Wild Flower Field
Indigo	4	Indigo Plant	Indigo Plant or Wild Flower Field
Navy	3	Woad Plant	Woad Plant or Wild Flower Field
Olive	2	Copper Salts	Copper deposit
Orange	5	Bloodwort Root	Bloodwort or Wild Flower Field
Purple	6	Juicy Elderberry & Indigo Plant	Elder Field/Wild Flower Field & Indigo Plant
Ranger Green	6	Lily-of-the-Valley Leaf & Umber	Lily-of-the-Valley Field/ Wild Flower Field & Barrow-iron deposit
Red	5	Juicy Strawberry	Strawberry Field
Rivendell Green	5	Onion Skin & Copper Salts	Green Onion Field & Copper deposit
Rose	6	Juicy Strawberry & Amaranth Petal	Strawberry Field & Amaranth Field/ Wild Flower Field
Rust	5	Ancient Iron Oxides	Ancient Iron
Sea Blue	5	Woad Plant & Bluebottle Petal	Woad Plant/Wild Flower & Bluebottle Field
Sienna	1	Sienna	Tin deposit
Turquoise	3	Bluebottle Petal	Bluebottle or Wild Flower Field
Umber	2	Umber	Barrow-iron deposit
Violet	3	Juicy Blackberry	Blackberry Field
White	6	Chunk of Lime	Khazâd-iron deposit
Yellow	6	Yarrow Root & Saffron Thread	Yarrow Root/ Wild Flower Field & Saffron Field

Tiers: 

1 = Apprentice Scholar                                                                                                   

2 = Journeyman Scholar

3 = Expert Scholar

4 = Artisan Scholar

5 = Master Scholar

6 = Supreme Scholar

New Dye colors
There are 16 new dye colors introduced via Update 18 onwards.  These dyes are exclusive and will be available 4 at a time via the upcoming festivals (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter).  
In each festival, two of the new dyes will be available for festival currency, and two will be available for Mithril Coins. The dyes available for Mithril Coins this year will be available for festival currency next year, and vice versa.

New dye colors from Update 18
Greens: Ashenslades Green, Bullroarer's Green, Dark Mossy Green, Rohan Green
Reds, Rose & Purples: Dark Purple, Lavender, Shire Plum
Orange and Peach: Shire Peach, Sunset orange
White, Darks & Earth: Moria Silver, Dark Clay, Rivendell (Imladris) Fallen Leaf
Blues: Belegaer Blue
Yellow and Gold: Lorien Gold

 

 

 

The way of the Gardener

For the gardener his or her job is easy, but tedious and cumbersome, You have to grow lots of flowerbeds, as a farmer. Moreover, you need some luck because the ingredients are critical drop-offs of you regular flower harvest, so you have to do a lot of work to make a specific dye. Patience is the word of the Gardener...

Tier 2 - Harvesting Iris roots
At tier 2 the scholar-gardener can make grey dye by harvesting Iris roots. As a farmer you can gather these roots from Iris Fields.You need the Iris Field Recipe to make flower fields with Iris. A critical success in harvesting will result in a Well-tended Iris Field, and these fields produce the Iris roots. From these roots you can make grey dye. Well trained farmers at tier 7 (Westfold) can also harvest Iris roots from a Wild Flower Field (see below).

Iris, flower

Iris, roots

Tier 3 - Harvesting Bluebottle petals and Juicy Blackberries.
At tier 3 the scholar-gardener can make two types of dye: turquoise dye from bluebottle petals and violet dye from juicy blackberries. You can gather Bluebottle petals from Bluebottle Fields, but only after a critical success. The same hold true for Juicy blackberry, which can be harvested with a critical success from a Blackberry Field (producing a Well tended Blackberry Field and a random drop of a Juicy Blackberry).
Well trained farmers at tier 7 (Westfold) can also harvest Bluebottle petals from a Wild Flower Field (see below).

Bluebottle (Centaurea cyaneus)

Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus)

Tier 4 - Harvesting Amaranth petals, Onion skins and Lily-of-theValley leaves.
At tier 4 the scholar-gardener can make 3 types of dye: 

1. Burgundy dye (a brown-red color)  from Amaranth petals, these can be harvested from a Amaranth Field (critical success from a well tended field)
2. Dark green dye from Onion skins, these can be harvested from a Green Onion Field (critical success)
3. Forest green dye, which is a mixture from Onion skins and Lily-of-the-Valley leaves. These Lily-leaves can be harvested from a Lily-of-the-Valley Field (critical success)

Well trained farmers at tier 7 (Westfold) can also harvest Amaranth petals and Lily-of-the-Valley leaves from a Wild Flower Field (see below).

Amaranthus (Amaranthus), flowers

Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis)

Green onions

Tier 5 - Harvesting Juicy Strawberries and Bloodwort roots.
At tier 5 the scholar-gardener can make 2 types of dye: 

1. Red dye from Juicy Strawberry, these can be harvested from a Strawberry Field (critical success from a well tended field)
2. Orange dye from Bloodwort Roots, these can be harvested from a Bloodwort Field (critical success)

Well trained farmers at tier 7 (Westfold) can also harvest Bloodwort Roots from a Wild Flower Field (see below).

Bloodwort (Sanguisorba officinalis)

Bloodwort roots (dried)

Tier 6 - Harvesting Amarant petals and Juicy Strawberries.
At tier 6 the scholar-gardener can make 1 type of dye, the Rose dye. It can be produced from a mix of a fruit - a Juicy Strawberry - and a flower, the petal of an Amaranth. In Tier 5 is described how these plants can be harvested.

Tier 7: The Wild Flower Field: producing all kinds of flowers

If you wanna make a Wild Flower Field, it requires the proper recipe and also a Superior Vegetable Farmland. Such a superior farmland can be found in the following regions:

• The Shire: at Hobbiton-Bywater [30.5S, 70.6W]
• Bree-land near Bree West Gate [29.3S, 52.2W]
• Dunland: Galtrev [79.6S, 16.2W]
• Lothlórien: The Vinyards of Lórien [19.0S, 63.9W]
• East Rohan: Eaworth in the Entwash Vale [47.2S, 63.9W] and Snowbourn in Sutcrofts [61.4S, 62.4W]

NB.: to be able to use Superior Farmlands for Artisan and above recipes, you must complete two quests and be granted Superior Farmland Access. When you have completed the first tier of the Expert Farmer tier, visit any Novice Farmhand. 

Wild Flower Fields produce all kinds of crops, suitable to make the required dyes. If you have a critical succes, it will produce a Well Tended Wild Flower Field. The estimated production rates of both fields (critical success between brackets) are given below:

Plant or flower	Production Rate %	Plant or flower	Production Rate %
Amaranth Petal	20 (37)	Juicy Elderberry	22  (42)
Bloodwort Root	11 (53)	Lily-of-the-Valley Leaf	27  (74)
Bluebottle Petal	0 (63)	Saffron Thread	24  (42)
Indigo Plant	53 (74)	Woad Plant	73(100)
Iris Root	18 (37)	Yarrow Root	100(100)

The way of the Botanist

The botanist is the plant gatherer and is always searching for rare plants in Middle Earth. It is not a very complicating job, because you have to know only three species of plants. These are Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Woad (Isatis tinctoria) and the Indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria). The trick of this specialization is to know the areas where these plants are growing. Of course, it is not an easy way to locate them, but if you have found their habitats, you can gather as many if you like. of course, after gathering these rare plants, you have to wait until they are regrown. After some time they will emerge on roughly the same spots, so the only thing you have to do is to remember the regions where plants for dyes are growing. 
Curiosity and exploring are the words of the Botanist.

Yarrow root

The real Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

At tier 1 you can make gold dye (a kind of yellow color, not gold alas) from Yarrow Roots. These plants can be found in the Shire (some) and in Bree-land (several). I will give you the map of Bree-land for the locations. Don't bother the Shire, because it is a rare plant in that region.

Yarrow root in Bree-land

Woad plant

The real Woad plant (Isatis tinctoria)

At tier 3 you can make a navy blue dye from the Woad plant. This plants grows in the Lone-lands and the North-downs. Some can even be found in north-eastern Bree-land, at the shores of the big lake Nen Harn.

Woad plants in North-Downs

Woad plants in Lone-lands

Indigo plant

The real Indigo plant (Indigovera tinctoria)

At tier 4 you can make a dark blue dye, called Indigo, from the Indigo plant. This plant can be found in several regions. Most botanists collect them from Trollshaws and Eregion, but the Indigo-plants are reported from Evendim, Enedwaith and Rohan also.

Indigo plants in Trollshaws

Indigo plants in Eregion

 

Combining the Botanist and the Gardener

The following dyes can be made only by combining the flower ingredients of the gardener and the collected herbs from the botanist. These dyes are:

• Evendim blue dye, at tier 4. By combining the Indigo plant & Bluebottle petals
• Sea blue dye, at tier 5: combining the Woad plant & Bluebottle petals
• Ered Luin blue dye, at tier 5: combining  the Indigo plant Juicy Elderberries
• Yellow dye, at tier 6: combining Yarrow root & Saffron thread. The Saffron threads is - of course - a critical result from a Saffron Field.