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I found one more saffron crocus blossom starting to open and greedily harvested the anther/threads. All the rest had already opened back in mid-October. I really need to get more bulbs or consider moving them to a more suitable location where they can establish better.

That's really cool. I love cooking with saffron.

yeah, given how expensive saffron is in the store, growing your own is a very big bargain. But it does seem like you would have to have a LOT of saffron crocuses to have enough saffron strands to cook with. (that's why it's so expensive along with the stoop labor of harvesting all those little threads from 2" off the ground)

It doesn't get nearly cold enough to grow crocus. Thanks for posting the picture. I have never seen one before. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world but it does not take that many strands to make paella. Sometimes I cheat and use safflowers instead. It gives the dish the color but not the flavor of the saffron. Achuete is usually added too to increase the yellow and also adds a little bit of flavor.

Does anyone know about growing crocuses for saffron?

The bulbs (actually corms) are planted anywhere between June and early September and should flower in October.

here's an article:

https://www.saffronbulbs.com/culture.htm

I imagine some where over the years you have told us where you are located. It would be nice if you would put it in your profile so it shows; I don't remember. Saffron crocus only grows between zone 8 or 9 down to zone 6. It needs some cold in winter, but not too much. If you are in a zone lower than six, you can grow it, but you would have to bring it in for the winter.

Little crocus corms have baby corms in the dirt when nobodies lookin'.

rainbowgardener wrote:The bulbs (actually corms) are planted anywhere between June and early September and should flower in October.

here's an article:

https://www.saffronbulbs.com/culture.htm

I imagine some where over the years you have told us where you are located. It would be nice if you would put it in your profile so it shows; I don't remember. Saffron crocus only grows between zone 8 or 9 down to zone 6. It needs some cold in winter, but not too much. If you are in a zone lower than six, you can grow it, but you would have to bring it in for the winter.

I don't know about zones. I'm in the UK. Could they be grown and harvested on a small scale, here?

If you look it up, I'm sure you can find a cold hardiness zone map for UK. But what zone 6 means is that on average the lowest temperature of the winter is between -5 and 0 deg F (about - 20 to -17 deg C). Zone 9 means that the average minimum winter temp is 20 -25 deg F (-7 to -4 deg C). So if your winter cold falls in that range, you can grow crocuses.

I don't know exactly what you mean by small scale. But I think each crocus flower produces 3 little saffron threads. So you have to have pretty many of them to collect any appreciable amount of saffron.

I was looking for a link for UK based on line crocus seller and found crocus.co.uk. BUT it turns out even though their website / company is called crocus, they do not carry any! seems odd. But there is this:

https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Flow ... MH2993.htm

Saffron crocus bulbs from a UK seller.

You're welcome ...

Copying over some references from another thread

Subject: Applestar's 2016 Garden

applestar wrote:

... also planted about half of the 50 saffron crocus bulbs I bought to replace my little group of saffron that seems to have died. I need to figure out where I can plant the rest where there might be a little more protected micro-climate... maybe the Kitchen Garden by the brick patio.

It seems that I was a little premature in declaring them dead. Unbeknownst to me, they quietly started to bloom in the last few days...


...I finished planting the saffron in these three locations. It's hard to find locations that get some sun through late fall despite the lengthening shadows of surrounding houses and trees, with micro-climate that tend to stay warmer than the rest of the garden to ensure they survive the negative single digit winter temps of Zone 6, and that tend on the dry side during their summer dormancy.


Left -- probably the best spot in terms of growing conditions, but probability of predation by mice, chipmunks, and rabbits (until properly fenced) is highest
Top right -- I cobbled together some leftover pavers for the little Kitchen Garden bed to hopefully provide a modicum of thermal mass. I'll figure out a way to pretty it up later.
Bottom right -- a little iffy since it's on the Northeast side of the house, but it IS the highest end of the slightly inclined/sloped yard.

Subject: Applestar's 2016 Garden

applestar wrote:We've had temps down to low-20's so garden is mostly done and I've been procrastinating on the remaining fall cleanup.

I hadn't been out since before last weekend, and look what the late-planted saffron decided to do in my absence



Clipped everything from the opened and flattened by two-day rain blossoms to the handful of unopened buds, quick rinse and float in cold water to shake and sink the rain-spattered dirt, then leisurely plucking of the red stigmas yielded this much.

...comparing the photos, these new saffron seem to have paler lavender colored blossoms, but it might just be because they bloomed so late in the season....?

Sweyn wrote:

rainbowgardener wrote:The bulbs (actually corms) are planted anywhere between June and early September and should flower in October.

here's an article:

https://www.saffronbulbs.com/culture.htm

I imagine some where over the years you have told us where you are located. It would be nice if you would put it in your profile so it shows; I don't remember. Saffron crocus only grows between zone 8 or 9 down to zone 6. It needs some cold in winter, but not too much. If you are in a zone lower than six, you can grow it, but you would have to bring it in for the winter.

I don't know about zones. I'm in the UK. Could they be grown and harvested on a small scale, here?

It certainly is grown in the UK ,think Saffron walden in Suffolk where it was grown commercially.

Bumping this thread to report on my saffron experience to date —

Saffron smells intensely sweet with a hint of “exotic” (spice? Middle-east? Mediterranean?).

All cookbook recipes I’ve ever read say “a pinch” of dried saffron. I’ve also seen “a thread or two” for short order cooked recipes.

I usually put a few threads in rice dishes — a pot of rice or a skillet of pilaf. And very rarely in an omelette for myself when I’m feeling indulgent. I think I’m harvesting the most ever this year.

My Front Porch-side Bed saffron (cluster of 10 bulbs that yielded for at least 5 years — provided a spot of color and brightness at the entrance near end of season … great bookend to the early spring Snowdrops and Crocuses — and great element in my “Edible Landscaping” theme) started to dwindle after we had a particularly bad drought one year, so I bought *I think* 15~20 (at most) bulbs to plant in the current location in the patio-side Kitchen Garden bed maybe 3 or 4 years ago.

I don’t know if I had a full harvest from these until now due to fall rains beating down the opened flowers, failure to harvest due to illness, apathy during 2020 season, etc. There were more than 20 flowers this year, so either they form more than one per bulb or they’ve multiplied over the years.

applestar wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 28, 2022 6:11 am

To my even MORE surprise, there were 15 more saffron blossoms on Wednesday.


[…]
* Harvested and drying threads from 15 saffron crocuses on a bread plate on the left *

—— eta ——

OK I decided to actually review this thread and what I posted in it before and these were planted Oct., 2016 — could have been as many as 2 doz. out of a package of 50. Based on where the rest of them were supposed to have been planted and current status, those others have been lost over the years. One location was prone to wildlife predation — likely chipmunks or voles digging at the bulbs and rabbits nibbling flowers, and the other location turned out to flood and freeze during the winter.