Saffron Crocus

I am interested in growing some Saffron Crocus & have found it offered in a few fall bulb catalogs that I've received recently.

Since I know it's fall flowering & goes thru a summer dormant period, do I still plant it in the fall like other bulbs?

Jes, you plant in the Fall and pretty soon as well, not like the other Fall planting bulbs.

Thanks!

I ordered some of the safron crocus-- so I'll let you know how I do with them. they have been shipped, so I'm jsut waiting for them to get here so I can get them in the ground.
Best
blazer1

If I'm not being too nosy - lol - may I ask where you ordered yours from? I believe the catalog I have that has them for sale is from Van Dyke's.

that's exactly where I ordered them-- hope they turn out to be good-- I'm re-doing the garden and wanted some fall flowering plants-- planted the saffron and golden fall crocus and the colchicum the gaint yesterday.

did you order from Van Dykes-- I checked them on DG-- and they seemed to be OK.

I'm really excited-- I'll let you know how it goes.
Blazer1

I grow the crocus in my garden and they always bloom but keeping the foliage green each winter so the bulb will grow and come back takes a bit of a trick. The foliage must stay green all winter and it begins to die back in mid-spring. The foliage starts to pop up in late September, early October and the flowering begins in mid October/November. After flowering the foliage will get longer and stay green if it is in a protected area. I live in zone 5 but I can still get it to live three out of four years.

Well then it should do well here. Our winters are relatively mild, & my grape hyacinth foliage is up & green all winter. Heck, 9 times out of 10 my daffodils are peeping up along with my Snow Drops in January.

If I can find a place to stick them (just starting to do landscaping/gardening around here), think I'll put a small order in after all & see what happens. Even if I just get one small pot of Saffron Rice out of it it'll be worth it - lol!!

mgarr
thanks for the info--about the leaves-- i will make sure they are protected and stay green-- that hadn't even occurred to me.

so extra mulch and love for them.
blazer 1

I just got my saffron crocus bulbs yesterday (from A Touch of Nature). Any advise on planting depth and density? I'm in Brookline, MA. Also, has anyone had any problems with chipmunks or squirrels consuming these bulbs?

About 3 inches with some mulch over it. Make sure it has good drainage. about 2 inches apart. Protect from squirrels by placing some wire mesh over them before putting the mulch on it. leave the area exactly like you found it before planting and do it late in the day. The squirrels are then in hiding and won't see you plant them.

Mine came from Seeds of Change. Had great success with them, harvested a fre saffron threads the first year!

Bleek, your comment about the squirrels intrigues me, viz., that late in the day they would be hiding and not see one planting the bulbs. In my experience, the squirrels are pretty active, though perhaps somewhat more up in the trees than on the ground, almost until nightfall. Usually they will stop by our birdbath for a drink before heading off to "bed". Do they typically watch other squirrels planting seeds, nuts, berries, etc.? Do they understand it when we're planting stuff? What you say about replacing the mulch to look the same as it had been makes a lot of sense, insofar as they invariably cover what they've "planted" with leaves or whatever was there before. Last fall when I was out planting bulbs-- or in the spring, when I put lots of groundcovers in our woodland area, I found myself possibly too heavily influenced by the squirrels themselves, noting that I was adhering to the same methodology the squirrels follow: dig, insert bulb or plant, tamp down, then cover with mulch/local leaf litter so the landscape looks unaltered. Though I HOPED that might fool the squirrels, I NEVER really believed it would (yet nothing I hid that way ever was unearthed). I know they smell their own scent when they bury something (especially if they pee on it), but I thought they could smell tubers, seeds, etc. deposited by others. A couple years ago, the squirrels raided a whole bank of hyacinthoides I planted, one hole at a time possibly a week after planting, which was disappointing. I've watched one squirrel diligently "putting food by" for hours, and then have seen other squirrels come by and loot the stashes, though usually a day or two later. If in fact they watch and commprehend what's going on, I'd really to know about that, so when the neighborhood cat is prowling, the hawks are circling, or the neighbor is out with the leaf blower, maybe those would present additional opportunities to plant "squirrel-proof" bulbs. I'd love to know how you know about these squirrel behaviors (know any informative books about squirrels?), and I do hope you're still checking this thread and can answer.

Related questions: I generally shake some hot pepper flakes and/or ground pepper over the bulbs before covering them back up with soil--did this with my saffron crocus a week or so ago (though I think I was out of pepper flakes, etc. when I planted the hyacinthoides). So far, no evidence that the rodents have detected my saffron crocus. Do you have any actual knowledge as to whether this is a generally effective way to deter rodent looting? Also, would the plastic deer mesh netting work in place of the wire? I've tried planting with chicken wire on top of bulbs where there are a few contiguous feet of bulbs in one place, but find snipping the chicken wire to fit small places is tedious.
Thanks.
Suzanne
P.S. What about chipmonks, voles, racoons and possum?

I was a squirrel in my previous life and I was always very curious what people had done in a freshly dug up square foot of garden here and there. I did not like the stuff, but satisfied my curiosity and was wondering who would win, them by replanting it or I digging it up. I also was a lazy squirrel.....If I did not see any disturbed soils, I was not interested and rather bake in the sun on a tree limb.

I also was very considerate with people that fed me peanuts. I always knew when planting time came, because they started putting out peanuts about a week before. I was in squirrel heven..never wondered where my winter stash of nuts would have to come from. After the first dish of peanuts and then about a week later, people would start planting every here and there, they then would rake the WHOLE garden and put mulch everywhere. They then would put the sprinklers on for a couple of hours and I just knew I had to give up hunting for those bulbs. I do not like them anyhow and with peanuts for the following 3 weeks, I just did not bother , laid in the sun and chased after other squirrels.

Everyone has there own "grandma or grandpa" remedies that work, how weird they sometimes sounds. This works for me and I know and now you know how I know.

I only have a problem sometimes with voles.........I always "stamp" the trails closed and when I see a fresh trail, I stamp it closed, check every 30 minutes or so and when I see a fresh start, I take a chair and watch to see him work with a pitch fork close by and then.......I gotcha!!. about 50 of my Hosta's are in the ground, all the others are in pots. I do like to share, but there is a limit.

Enjoy and Happy Gardening.

thanks so much for sharing " your squirrel life", bleek with those of us who aren't-- I just don't likethe silly things-- they empty out my bird feeders in no time flat-- I'm having some steps put in my garden and had to move my feeders-- so the squirrels seem to have gone to " other restaurants"-- perhaps that's gong to be the answer for planting my fall bulbs- just not toput out my feeders until after I have planted all.

I'm afraid I didn't plant my saffron crocus in soil that drains wellenough-- but we'll see..
you all have a great day.
blazer1

Hey Bleek! That's fantastic! I absolutely love your answer!!! We moved here 3 years ago, and I never had a place up until now where I could a) plant tons of plants and b) feed the birds and critters and see their lives unfold . I always liked squirrels since I was a kid, but most people just don't understand... I have really enjoyed putting a "critter mix" of peanuts, corn and seeds out for the squirrels when it's cold (relatively speaking) and miserable in the winter, and watching their delight as they discovered "PEANUTS! PEANUTS! PEANUTS!", leaving the corn--then coming by the next day to discover "CORN! CORN! CORN!" I never thought it through to incorporate it into an actual win-win type of strategy--thank you so much for sharing.

blazer1.....don't you have a "baffel" on the pole with the bird feeder?? Me and my neighbor have about 10 feeders up and all of them have that thing and we don not have squirrels emptying the feeders, they just can not get there. Now they are under the feeder, since some of the birds are messy eaters and they clean up after them.

With all the things that squirrels do to our gardens, why do we avoid them when they try to commit suicide in front of our cars??
Ann

bleek, I don't have baffels-- will have to get some-- my fight with the squirrels has occured because I insist on putting one of my feeders on my deck ( it's easier to get to in the winter)__ the squirrels can jump and hang upside down from the feeder either from a nearby tree or from the deck railing- but I'll get the baffels.

breezymeadows--- did you order the whole special froom Van Dykes's? I did and my two colchicum have broken ground and are poking theri little nodles up-- exciting.
corinne

Taking Bleek's advice, I've put peanuts out this week. The squirrels seem reasonably delighted and civilized with their discovery, but the chipmonks are on the verge of renting a Ryder truck and hauling everything away. I've read that chipmonks do pose a danger to bulbs, so if this will deter them from looking for the bulbs I'm putting in, that's fine. If not, however, I guess we need to rig something up so the squirrels get first "dibs" on the peanuts.

Anybody knowledgeable or have an opinion re the chipmonks?

shimer-- my chipmuncks love bird feed-maybe tht's the way to go for the squirrels and the chipmuncks so they will leave the bulbs alone--it must be working, because so far I haven't had to much of a problem with bulbs.
blazer1

Good question, ViolaAnn. With what they do to my yard and garden, I'd love to run all of the little chitterdemons down. But that little 'thump-thump' really grosses me out. (Besides, I'm really not that mean!)

Here's a little tongue-in-cheek fun for those who are less than squirrel enthusiasts ~ http://www.scarysquirrel.org/theory/theory.html