Just a few days ago I thought I would be blessed with just one saffron crocus this year. I calculated that with three red threads, it was worth about 15 cents.
Yesterday, I was delighted to discover that though that first flower had faded, three more had arrived to watch over it.
And not too far from that trio, I saw two more saffron crocuses in bloom, and near those two was another one, plus the tip of a flower just emerging.
Can you imagine?
I thought I had just one saffron crocus bloom this year, and it turns out I will have at least nine blooms.
Dare I imagine it?
That they are multiplying rather than slowly dying off?
The riches!
Why, it’s almost enough to make me want to go out there and harvest some of those red threads!
But I think I’ll be patient and leave them for now in hopes they’ll continue to multiply out there, year by year.
Because we all know that patience is rewarded.
Pictures or it didn’t happen!
Two saffron crocuses…
One saffron crocus plus a bud….
Don’t ask me my secret for growing saffron crocus and getting it to return reliably. It’s a well guarded secret. So secret that even I don’t know what it is.
Carol, you should harvest the saffron threads and make something delicious with it (saffron rice?). Harvesting the pistils won’t harm the saffron bulbs, since they multiply more often by offsets rather than by seeding. I used to have a lovely patch of saffron in my old home. I tried growing it here in Virginia, but in this rural setting, the voles tunnel under and eat the bulbs before they have a chance to even bloom. The squirrels also dig them up to eat–the bulbs must as delicious to animals as the pistils are to humans.