Buy fibre flax seeds especially bred for spinning. If you want to grow flax to obtain fibre for spinning linen yarn, you need the right seed. There are many different varieties and two distinct types of cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum), linseed flax bred for seed or oil production and fibre flax bred to produce fibre for spinning linen yarn.
The fields of blue linseed flax grown in the UK are bred for oil. Linseed, which is sold in health food shops, produces plants that are short and branched and yield lots of seed but very poor quality fibre (read more about fibre flax seed...)
More about our fibre flax seed and flax varieties:
The linen variety of flax seed produces tall straight plants and long staple fibre that is easy to spin. The fibre yield, fibre content and quality is high although the seed production is low compared to linseed flax varieties.
We now sell the fibre flax variety Lisette which is a commonly used variety of fibre flax worldwide and one of the leading varieties in the world. There are no large commercial producers of fibre flax in the UK and our seeds are imported from a major commercial producer in the Netherlands, a centre for quality and innovation.