Proper disposal and recycling of different industrial waste materials have long been recognized as a prime environmental concern throughout the world and fly ash is major amongst them. Present study has evaluated the effects of fly ash on growth attributes, productivity and photosynthetic pigments to ensure the possibility of safe utilization of fly ash as soil amendment for safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.). Soil was amended with varied concentrations of fly ash (0%, 5%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% per pot) prior to sowing under field condition in the herbal garden of Jamia Hamdard and sampling was done at different growth stages i.e. pre-flowering, flowering and post-flowering stages. Our results demonstrated that the concentrations till 25% fly ash significantly improved the physicochemical properties of soil as compared to control resulting in augmentation of the available macro and micronutrients for plant growth. This resulted in increment of growth attributes and net productivity of the crop at 25% fly ash amendment. Photosynthetic pigments and metabolic contents like, protein, nitrate reductase (NR) activity and sugar content exhibited significant increase with lower concentration of fly ash (25%) as compared to control and the maximum was found during the flowering stage followed by pre-flowering and post- flowering stages, respectively. Further increase in fly ash concentration declined all the above parameters exhibiting minimum with 75% fly ash application. Thus, it was concluded that 25% incorporation of fly ash level not only improved the physico-chemical properties of the soil but also contributed to better growth, yield and metabolism of safflower.