My front strip—that hard-to-cultivate patch between street and sidewalk—never supported much grass. I gave up on it years ago and substituted plants tough enough to take the sometimes fatal combination of abysmal soil and perpetual exposure. Hostas hold forth under the maple tree, with heuchera, hellebores and other shade lovers also succeeding within its shadow. In the lighter parts of the strip I have installed columbines, asters, threadleaf coreopsis, catmint, stork’s bill and a host of other strong contenders. Plants that don’t succeed are forgiven, graded “A” for effort and relocated or replaced in more favorable areas.
Spring and fall, the strip is home to various flowering bulbs, including one species whose historic and actual value far outstrips anything else in the garden. The little bulb with the big reputation is Crocus sativus, better known as the saffron crocus. A diminutive member of the iris or Iridaceae family, it is a beautiful thing, with chalice shaped blooms in shades of pale purple veined in a darker shade of the same color. A closer look reveals its potent secret—three golden-orange, thread-like stigmas that spring forth from each bloom’s center. These stigmas, when harvested and dried are the source of saffron, a spice that is featured in cuisines from Wales to Spain to India and beyond. When soaked in water and combined with a mordant or fixative, even the tiniest amount of saffron produces a bright yellow dye as well. For millennia, this little crocus has been cultivated and its stamens used for food, medicine, cosmetics, dyes and liqueurs. Its value is so great that in fifteenth century Europe those who sold adulterated saffron were sometimes punished by death.
So why is this beautiful southwest Asian native so important? Certainly back in ancient Greece, when it was allegedly first cultivated by Alexander the Great’s troops, there was a demand for strong flavorings to enhance the taste of food that was often bland or spoiled, or both. Alexander’s men tended to carry on in ways that were highly conducive to disease and/or injury, so the stamens’ purported medicinal properties probably also appealed. At various times and places saffron, in mixtures, tinctures or decoctions, has been used to treat everything from fever, to nervous ailments to digestive issues. Used in poultices, saffron was thought to treat bruises and rheumatism as well.
Long popular in Middle Eastern dishes, as well as Indian specialties like biryani, saffron made its way to northern Europe via crusaders or pilgrims. Europeans liked the taste and eventually it was used in dishes as diverse as Spanish paellas, French bouilliabaisse, Italian risottos and Cornish saffron cake. The southeastern English county of Essex was such a notable saffron producer that a regional market town was named Saffron Walden. Continuing its international journey, saffron also crossed the ocean to North America in the seventeenth century.
With all the medicinal/culinary plants known to humans, what is it that makes saffron so expensive that it has sometimes equaled gold in value? Consider the saffron blossom. Each flower has only a few of the valuable stigmas and, in fact, it may take up to seventy thousand flowers to produce enough stigmas to yield one pound of dried saffron. Is it any wonder that for at least six hundred years, unscrupulous vendors have cut the available saffron with other golden-orange substances in an effort to increase both supplies and profits? Only five years ago in England, officials, tipped off by a saffron-loving gourmet, began an investigation into adulterated saffron imported from Spain. Anglo-Spanish analysis efforts revealed that the stigmas were indeed “cut” with other crocus parts that had been dyed to match.
Considering the value of the stigmas, saffron crocus bulbs are relatively cheap, generally costing less than sixty cents apiece. Installed in a well-drained, sunny space, like an herb garden, rockery or the edges of standard beds and borders, they add lovely color to the fall garden. Plant five, seven or nine bulbs per hole to create naturalistic clumps. If you want to harvest the stigmas for cooking, pluck the flowers when they are fully open and extract the stigmas with your fingers or tweezers. Dry in a cool place and store in airtight containers. I think it is a shame to harvest the blooms because they are so beautiful in the waning autumn garden. Like other ephemeral plants, saffron crocuses disappear relatively quickly after blooming, only to surprise you again the following fall.
There is still time to buy Crocus sativus from some vendors and install them in your garden. One good source is Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, 7900 Daffodil Lane, Gloucester, VA 23061, (877) 661-2852; www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com. Free print catalog.