[Sca-cooks] saffron crocus

[Olwen the Odd]

Hi Margaret.

I used to grow saffron.  It blooms late in the fall, often at frost here in
Maryland.  If you plant it now, don't expect to see much of anything this
year.  The bulbs may bloom and you will see some short green plant, but
don't get dis-heartened, just don't plant anything else on top of them and
next year you should probably get some flowers.  It usually takes a few
years for them to get really happy in a place and start producing much.  The
flower blooms first thing in the morning and has such a wonderful aroma.
Pick the flower on the first day of bloom and pull the trio of saffron
threads and set them aside to dry.  (When folks buy powdered saffron it very
often is made from the dried and powdered staimen of this crocus plant, not
the actual saffron threads). By picking the flower on the first day you
encourage the plant to produce another, which won't happen till the bulbs
are established and happy.  Where I live here, I just mulched them over very
well in winter.  You can and should, by about the third year start digging
the bulbs up either after season or early in the spring to separate the
bulbs and immediately replant them.  I successfully dug mine out of the
ground and put in deep planters where they continued to grow happily on
someones porch till they got knocked over, now they grow in the pickly pear
patch.  Basically, once you get them happy, you cann't get rid of them very
easily.

Good luck and keep me posted on their progress.

Lady Olwen the Odd
Clan of Odds
House Blackstar
Bright Hills Cooks Guild
Order of the Pearl
Barony of Bright Hills
Kingdom of Atlantia!


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