Dear PBS Friends, SAFRRON ! The first flowers opened the 23rd, more yesterday and even more today. I have collected a bout 3 dozen stigmas and they are drying for a few days before being stored. The temps dropped below freezing last week, but then the flowers and foliage emerged. The leaf cover over the area where the saffron grows dropped almost all its foliage, too giving them near full sun at the same time. Crocus sativus has been very reliable here even in our cold winters and current hot dry summer. Crocus banaticus just started blooming a couple days ago, too. I have both pale and darker violet forms. I have tried a couple different whites, but these have never survived or bloomed. Odd. Colchicums are at their very end. We are in major need of rain. It has been weeks and are well below normal for the season and the year. Best Jim W. -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +