Saffron flowers

Call me crazy but the other day I decided to buy some saffron bulbs and give them a go. The allure of the world’s most expensive spice and its pretty crocus flowers was enough to sway me.

The saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) is supposedly an easy to grow bulb that prefers hot dry summers (when dormant) and cold/cool wet winters, being fully hardy to frosts.  If your climate doesn’t quite match this (like mine) it probably won’t be quite so easy to grow.  Try planting it in a pot (as I will be) where you can more easily control the environment.  Make sure you use a well drained potting mix to avoid the bulb rotting.  Use a cactus and succulent mix or add some horticultural sand to a regular mix.  By growing in a pot I’ll be able to move it under shelter during summer so they stay dry when we get our regular summer downpours.

Some mighty fine looking bulbs!

The one thing that I can’t do much about is to make our winters colder.  I’m interested to see how they will perform through a mild winter.  Wish me luck.

Either way I won’t be setting up a saffron spice business anytime soon.  The spice is derived from the dried stigma and style threads in the flowers.  These are the female parts of the flower, seen above as dark orange “threads”, three to a flower.  It takes approximately 150 flowers to produce 1 gram of dried saffron threads.  No wonder the spice doesn’t come cheap. 

Unfortunately my inner city apartment would probably only give me room to produce a few grams a year.  What money I might make would quickly be sucked up by physio bills fixing my back.  Saffron flowers usually don’t grow over 30cm high so that’s going to mean a lot of bending.  I might just stick to kaffir lime leaves to flavour my rice and save the back!

PS Don’t forget to check out The Plant Addict Shop while you’re here. 

You’ll find great gift ideas for garden lovers and fellow plant addicts!