Topic: Look what I've got...

[manicscousers]

I bought mine from ebay, goodlife, I'm looking forward to seeing them flower  ;D

[chriscross1966]

Hurrah... both batches of Saffron Crocus are showing now.... I had one lot that I'd bought from Suttons, and some tiny bulbs that came from a friend where he'd rescued some corms that had spent pretty much a year in a drawer.... they'd sprouted, hardly had any light (we got them into pots as soon as they were found but it was May...) when they died down I had a rummage through the pots adn a lot of the corms broke down to reveal two or three mini corms embedded in the fibrous rubbish that had been the old corm.... so I planted them in a 15-cell module tray to keep an eye on them and a good few are up now.... hopefully I can grown them on into something bigger.... the Suttons ones are in three large terracotta pots and I'll be moving them into the GH soon...

chrisc

[goodlife]

Nothing like bit of growing success.. ;) ;D I'm prone to do A&E for some 'lost cases' too.. ;D
I've got couple of more flower buds on mine..so then my total yield would be 5 flowers out of 30 bulbs.. ::)..oh well..it's better than "poke with sharp stick in the eye". And now I can make small saffron spiced dish too..just enough for a taster.. ;D
Plan is to spice a rice mixture that I stuff squash with. I just have to wait for those last buds to flower, harvest the 'crop', dry it..and maybe make a special christmas dish..just for me.. ;D

[Mrs Ava]

Mine are up and a similar size to yours Manics.  Fingers crossed for some flowers soon.

[manicscousers]

mine seem to have side shoots, too, maybe the bulbs have split already? ???

[goodlife]

Yes..mine has 'side shoots' too.."each bulb is capable to produce several flowers"..It will be interesting to see how soon those 'baby bulbs' appear..I'm going to have little dig into the planter next spring.

[goodlife]

Interesting little read about saffron..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8881165/Wild-about-saffron-A-whiff-of-the-exotic-heading-our-way.html

[goodlife]

I bought this up again..

The tops of my saffron has died back now and the bulbs have gone to 'rest'.
Couple months ago when the leaves were still green I gave the bulbs a feed of tomato fertilizer and I'm hoping it will 'boost' the bulbs flowering capability in few months time.
Now that there is no growth..I've put glass back over the planter to keep rain off as what I've read the bulbs like to 'rest' in dry conditions and once the growth start again they will like plenty of moisture again.
I'm also going to give a inch 'mulch' of gritty compost soon with bit of BFB so the 'snap' is there available when the bulbs are ready to use it.

I'm hoping a better harvest this year..last year I only ended up with 5 strands of saffron.. ::)..target is to double it this year.. ;D How did you ended up with your saffron harvest?

[chriscross1966]

Got nothing and as far as I can tell the bulbs have disappeared into nothing as well.... they were growing happily and I wasn't expecting flowers this year but they don't seem to have formed bulbs.... I'm going to riddle the top few inches of the soil from the pots they were in (massuive terracottas)

chrisc

[manicscousers]

No saffron this year, the bulbs have died down and are outside , will cover and feed later in the season, here's hoping for some flowers in autumn  :)

[Jayb]

I've just been turning out my pots with saffron bulbs as they have been in for 2 seasons. I'm going to repot with fresh compost/earth in the next day or so. I've had a few pesky mice burrowing in, hard to know if they have done much damage? A range of bulb sizes to be replanted, fingers crossed some of these flower again in the autumn.

[goodlife]

Has any of your bulbs started to grow yet?
I had to dig into planter to see if they are still alive as nothing is showing yet, last year this time there was already some top growth above the soil level. All the bulbs are there but still dormant.
It must be the weather that have messed up with their growth this year