Saffron
Jane McGary (Mon, 31 Oct 2005 09:32:54 PST)

You're welcome, Jim McKenney, for the Sativi series crocuses from my list.
It's true that I did not offer the rare and endangered C. moabiticus, and I
probably never will, but I have it -- grown from one of the few seed
collections, by Michael Salmon in the early 1990s -- and still have 4 of my
5 original seedling corms, which are showing signs of decline now. It has
set seed here, and I've sent both seeds and corms to some specialists, as
well as growing seedlings from 3 different years. Although its flowers are
narrow and not as large as some members of the series, it is strikingly
colored.

All members of this series set seed readily here despite their late
flowering (there were honeybees in the bulb frame yesterday, a sunny day
sandwiched between two rainstorms), and all seem to be easy to raise from
seed, which can be obtained from the NARGS exchange or the Archibalds,
among other sources. In the open garden, C. cartwrightianus, C. asumaniae,
C. pallasii, and C. hadriaticus are dependable, and I'm now trying C.
oreocreticus in the rock garden.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA