> Kath
> Working hard in the garden here in southern Spain, where we're heavily
> into spring.
Say Kathleen,
Would you know anything about saffron crocus? I planted 6 bulbs last
fall and now they are up. They look the same every day for 2 months
now. I understand they bloom in the fall, but right now they are
beginning to look like plastic plants.
Today its 80 degrees F, wierd spring.
Loren in NJ
Dear Loren,
Wish I could help but in my part of Spain there is no cultivation of
saffron. In fact, the biggest production here is in Iberian pig products.
Most people do garden but a grow a fairly small variety of vegetables. If
you can't find out about saffron in a web search let me know and I'll see
what I can do with asking around here, science teachers or people with
encyclopaedias.
Kath in the Sierra de Aracena
S'funny, Nichols Gardens would'nt send mind till fall and I planted them
right awayand they grew and bloomed in no time. I think they're a fall
blooming bulb.
l
l
The earth is the LORD'S and the fulness thereof!
Amy of Marvelous Gardens
delicious design in landscape
zone 22 or 10 and holding
Orange County Calif
http://members.ecom.net/~jimandmissi/marvelous/
marvlusgrdns@ecom.net
Date: Wednesday, April 01, 1998 2:25 AM
Subject: Re: Was: moles, now Spain & crocus
of
Cook Organic Garden Club
Hello Loren,
I have a Fall blooming crocus (I have no idea if it's a saffron crocus)
that
puts up green foliage in the spring and then dies back, and then in the
Fall
the flowers come up without any foliage. So maybe this is what's up with
yours.
Valerie Hillgren
Mainz, Germany
hillgren@mpch-mainz.mpg.de
This could be autumn crocus, colchicum autumnalis (autumn crocus, naked
ladies) which is not the saffron crocus - in fact it is poisonous in all
parts and even contact can be irritating to some people.
Saffron - if this is what you have - comes from crocus sativus var
cashmirianus whose crocus like leaves come up with or just after the
flowers and hang around all winter and spring before dying down for the
summer
Its easy to tell the leaves apart - colchicums have big fat leaves, saffron
crocus has proper crocus leaves
Other true crocus species also flower in the fall but they just don't
produce saffron - human beings have been selecting for saffron production
for millenia
kathryn
Kathryn Marsh, Tobersool, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, Ireland
Phone and Fax 0353 1 841 3681
kmarsh@iol.ie
"the cosmos is the smallest space a man's head will fit in" G.K.Chesterton
(more or less)
Thanks Kathryn, it looks like I have the colchicums. A friend gave me
the bulbs
without telling me what they were, and then took off with her husband on
sabatical so I couldn't ask her. So I just planted them, and needless to
say
they eventually bloomed so I figured out they were a Fall crocus.
Valerie Hillgren
Mainz, Germany
hillgren@mpch-mainz.mpg.de
