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Vegetable Gardening

Thinking about growing Saffron Crocus this Fall

13 years ago

Hey everyone,

I'm thinking about growing Saffron Crocus this fall and was wondering if anyone has had any success with it?

I did some reading and the first problem I see is finding a company which sells the real deal.

I've had my eye out on some for sale at White Flower Farm and was wondering if this is the real Saffron Crocus bulbs. The type that I can harvest to use for cooking.

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/910891-product.html

The picture of the bulbs are a much darker purple than what I found in this article

http://growingtaste.com/herbs/saffron.shtml

So it has me wondering.

The second question I have is, is it possible to grow these bulbs successfully in containers?

Thank You!

Featured Answer

susan2010

13 years ago

I had some in my yard and it did well. Unfortunately I had a lot of work done out front where the crocus were and they got trampled by the workmen. They don't seem to have survived. They are pretty and it's nice to get a crocus in the fall. This reminds me that I should get some more bulbs and re-plant. Now that things are finished out front, they should be safe.

I guess I planted them originally in ignorance. Regular crocus do well in New England so at the time I assumed the saffron crocus would too. Seems to have been true.

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Comments (6)

oregonwoodsmoke
13 years ago
I have no idea about Texas.

I bought 50 bulbs and got 4 flowers the first year. The saffron was absolutely delicious; had to make a very small recipe with such a small amount of saffron.

I got tons of pretty foliage for the next 5 years and no flowers. Finally the bulbs stopped coming up.

The bulbs are expensive, so that was one costly saffron dish I made.

Saffron likes dry growing conditions. I hope you have better luck than I did.
flora_uk
13 years ago
You might want to check this thread over on the herbs forum. Several people over there have grown it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Saffron thread
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I'm rethinking my previous post...if the supplier shipped them this spring, maybe they had already thrown their spring foliage and matured (set buds) before shipping. If that were the case, they might bloom this year. If they don't bloom this year, I'm pretty sure they will get their act together and do fine next year. They've had their life cycle disturbed and it may take them a year to settle in. I hope you have better luck w/these than I did. They bloomed beautifully, however, due to their bloom time and our fall weather conditions the flowers were always pounded to the ground by rain. The blooms are extremely delicate (and beautiful) and don't stand back up again after a pounding. Planting them in a ground cover like pachysandra, epimedium, etc. helps them to stand up.
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tlbean2004 wrote: "Dig one up and see if there is any kind of growth on them." Thanks for your response, tlbean2004. Well, I had about 15 of them, so I can just dig in the general area, I guess. "What kind of ground are they in?" Just regular garden soil. "Is it dry?" We've had average rainfall over the summer, so not particularly. "Are you watering?" Since the rainfall has been average, not the crocuses. I've watered some of my other plants when they look thirsty at times, but I just assumed the crocuses had died, so I haven't bothered. Anyway, I'll do some digging and see if that uncovers anything. :)
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Rayama, I have tried several times to grow saffron in different soils to no avail. A dozen bulbs will flower well that first October. The following year there will be 4 or 5 and one the 3rd year. A few leaves the following year then nothing. It could be rodents eating the foliage but I've not seen any evidence of that. I did have good luck with the cartwright Crocus. It is the ancestral saffron. I thought it too had perished, then several years after planting, it began to reflower. This is in heavy clay soil in a cedar glade. The flowers look like saffron to me. Mike519
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Saffron is actually a fall-blooming crocus. Mine always blooms in November. The blades stay green all winter and die back in the spring. It's supposedly hardy to zone 6a, so I would give it a try. You don't get much of a harvest (which is why saffron is so expensive), but you don't generally use a lot in cooking and it's fun to say that you grew it yourself.
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lnewport
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks everyone!
User
13 years ago
FWIW, you need a LOT of flowers to get more than a few pinches of the stuff.

It takes 300-400 flowers to get 1/10th of an ounce. Granted, 1/10th oz. of saffron is a lot more than it sounds, but it's not something you'll get a huge return on investment unless you love the flowers and they're in an easy-care planting situation.
lnewport
Original Author
13 years ago
I realize that I won't get a ton of the stuff but they are pretty and if they are easy enough to grow they will look good in my flower garden.

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