Crocus sativus - Saffron

Crocus sativus, commonly known as Saffron, is a small bulbous plant of uncertain origin, cultivated since ancient times for the harvest of its precious, highly aromatic, bright red female floral parts called stigmas. This perfectly hardy crocus is also a very pretty flower for autumn, with each corm producing one to two large cup-shaped flowers in shades of lilac, veined with purple, serving as a backdrop for the red stigmas and golden-yellow stamens. It can be grown in the vegetable garden as well as in sunny borders and rock gardens, scattered among ground-covering plants whose beautiful flowers will pierce through the vegetation.

The saffron is a perennial geophyte plant (having an underground storage organ called a corm) of the Iridaceae family. It is a sterile plant, not producing viable seeds, likely resulting from the hybridization of two wild crocuses that appeared several thousand years ago somewhere in Greece or Turkey, according to experts. Crocus sativus has a corm (swollen base of the stem) that allows it to go into a state of dormancy during the summer, thereby escaping the summer drought. Its foliage, composed of 6 to 10 very thin linear leaves, measuring 15 to 20cm in length, slightly leathery, with fringed edges, dark green in colour, develops in autumn, persists throughout winter, and disappears in early summer. Flowering generally occurs in October, before the appearance of the foliage. The spectacular large flowers, measuring 10cm in diameter, emerge directly from the ground. They are of great beauty, with a corolla of 6 petals, the centre of which is occupied by 3 yellow-gold stamens covered in pollen and 3 long red filaments called stigmas, which are harvested and dried for use in cooking as a spice or colouring agent. Unlike most crocus species, its flowers remain open even in darkness.

Crocus sativus is used in the vegetable garden, of course, but also in ornamental gardens, as it is as decorative as it is useful. It can be planted in borders, rock gardens, or even in pots for autumn crocuses. In the garden, it can be planted along the edge of a border or in a rock garden, always in a sunny and well-drained soil, and can be associated with pretty ground-covering perennials for dry soil: Artemisia lanata, wild thyme, Stachys byzantina, Phyla nodiflora, or even Cerastostigma plumbaginoides, with its red foliage in autumn, and many others. Ornamental garlics such as Allium christophii, as well as the Peruvian scilla, Amaryllis belladonna, or other bulbs that prefer dry soil in summer, also make good companions for saffron.

Saffron is mainly produced in Iran and is harvested every day as soon as the flowers bloom (the flowers have a short lifespan, approximately 48 hours), ideally at sunrise to preserve its taste qualities. Once harvested, the stigmas are dehydrated, let them dry for about twenty minutes in a slightly warm oven (60°C) and then store them in airtight containers. It takes 150 flowers to produce one gram of saffron.