Saffron Crocus

Saffron Crocus is grown from corms planted in early fall, set about four to six inches deep and four inches apart in full sun. It needs well-drained soil with moderate organic matter, ideally a sandy loam, since wet ground causes corm rot, and established plants are quite drought tolerant so watering should stay light. Corms multiply each year and are best lifted and divided every two to five years during their summer dormancy in July or August.

Fungal disease can strike if the bloom period coincides with wet weather, and root rot develops wherever the corms sit in poorly drained ground. Squirrels, mice, rabbits, groundhogs, chipmunks and voles all feed on the corms and can thin out a planting.

The stigmas must be gathered quickly, since the plant's fall bloom lasts only one to a few weeks and each flower opens for just a few days. Growers pick the flowers by hand, often in the morning before they are fully open, then remove the three red-orange stigmas from each bloom while it is fresh. Because saffron is light-sensitive, the threads are dried away from light and then kept in an airtight container in a cool, dark place to retain their flavor for later use.

Culinary: The dried stigmas are used as a spice, valued across Mediterranean and Asian cooking for the flavor and golden color they lend to dishes, and the very low yield from each flower contributes to saffron's high price.

Ornamental: Beyond the kitchen, the crocus is also grown simply for its purple to lavender fall flowers in borders, walkways, rock gardens and mass plantings.

Historical: Saffron has been used as a dye for fabric and royal garments in several cultures, as a perfume in Greek and Roman bathhouses, and in traditional medicine by several civilizations.

Saffron Crocus is unknown in the wild and is the product of some 3,500 years of selective breeding, believed to descend from the wild species Crocus cartwrightianus. Early evidence of its cultivation dates to around 2300 BC, and a clear depiction of the flower appears in a fresco at the Palace of Minos in Knossos, Crete, from roughly 1700–1600 BC. Because the cultivated plant is a sterile triploid that cannot set seed, it has been propagated only by hand division of its corms across Mediterranean and Asian civilizations ever since, with Iran now producing the great majority of the world's supply.