Saffron
Jane McGary (Mon, 31 Oct 2005 10:06:01 PST)

Jim wrote,

The article is "Fall Crocuses" by W. J. Hamilton, Jr., of Ithaca (right
university, Jim, wrong town name), New York. It appeared the Bulletin of
the ARGS 36(2):71-78, Spring 1978. It's quite a good article -- perhaps I
should reprint it, and I may start doing that if I get desperate enough for
copy for the present incarnation of this periodical, which I edit.

I hope someone who has a good healthy population of C. sativus will trade
me some next summer. I had good ones when I started this garden in 1984,
but rodents ate them, and the replacements I purchased dwindled despite
informed cultivation, suggesting that they were virused.

Also interesting was Angelo's description of wild populations of Crocus
thomasii. Like most others, I grow only the light lavender form, which sets
seed enthusiastically and does well in my rock garden as well as in the
bulb frame.

Other interesting fall crocuses (in addition to the Sativi series) in
flower now include C. nudiflorus, C. longiflorus, C. biflorus ssp.
melantherus (unusual fall-blooming biflorus subspecies), the showy C.
robertianus, C. tournefortii (which forgets to close its flowers at night),
various kinds of C. serotinus, C. mathewi, C. boryi, C. hermoneus, some
lovely white forms of C. goulimyi, C. speciosus, and C. pulchellus. The
last-named has naturalized a little in the rough pasture grass near the
bulb frame, presumably sown by ants; I never knew it was there until I
started having the field mown in fall as well as late spring. C.
ochroleucus has made its first appearance in a warm spot and will continue
into December, when C. laevigatus (somehow surviving in the open, too) will
flower.

Looking at that list, I realize that the depredations by rodents my crocus
collection suffered last year seem to have concentrated on spring-flowering
species--perhaps because the mouse assault started in December, when the
fall crocuses mostly had their leaves up and thus had smaller, less
succulent corms at that stage of their annual cycle.

As for storing saffron, I think that (like many other seasonings) it has to
be kept in a dark, airtight container to preserve its virtue. I don't like
the taste of it so haven't harvested it much; to color food golden yellow,
I usually use turmeric or the Latin American spice annatto.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA