Autumn-blooming Crocus

There are a great many Autumn-blooming Crocus, and I'm not entirely conscious of the differences. A good place to start looking them up is Bulbs, by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix. Unfortunately there's not much descriptive text, but it has a lot of photos and it lists a lot of uncommon and uncultivated species. Like other Phillips and Rix titles, this one inspires wish lists. Watch out for hardiness ratings; not all Crocus are ironclad hardy in really cold climates.

I recently started growing Crocus cartwrightianus, which is believed to be the wild ancestor of Saffron (C. sativa). It looks like the Saffron Crocus except for its smaller size. It's worth the sacrifice of size, though, because C. cartwrightianus is fertile, unlike its triploid domesticated cousin, and therefor less likely to die out. The smaller flowers are sturdier, too, standing up neatly instead of flopping over like Saffron blossoms. The leaves appear as it is blooming, so it's not quite as naked as most of the autumn-blooming Crocus. So far it is already blooming well on small corms, another improvement over C. sativa, which produces sparce bloom this far north.

Crocus cartwrightianus in my rock garden

The “saffron” from northern Africa (which sometimes shows up in the markets of Mediterranean Europe) isn't the real thing. A little saffron might still be produced in Spain and Greece, but currently the largest producer by far is India. It's probably mostly for export; Indians use it only occasionally. Iranians use it to make some of the fanciest rice dishes I've ever seen. In southern Europe its also used mostly for rice dishes, but Germans have been known to make saffron potatoes, in Cornwall it's added to saffron buns, and in Scandinavia (particularly Sweden) its used for making saffron-flavored sweet breads.

The part you harvest is the stigma. You can use the stigmas of C. cartwrightianus in place of Saffron, as I intend to do. Too bad it only blooms once a year (there's a reason Saffron is expensive!). Grow enough and you can make some saffron buns for Christmas. I'll try to remember to post a recipe.

I have had C. pulchellus for many years. This one blooms before the leaves, but the flowers are good-sized and of an excellent shade oflight near-blue. The stigmas are white, which distinguishes this one from some of its near-relations such as C. speciosus.

C. kotschyanus is better-known among bulb suppliers as C. zonatus. It's reputedly an aggressive spreader, the autumn-blooming counterpart to the spring-blooming C. tommasinianus, a good one for naturalizing but probably not for planting next to demure alpines.

Spring Crocus naturalize well in lawns. I'm not sure about the autumn-blooming Crocus—I'm afraid they might get mowed down. You might try them on the very edges of the lawn if you can remember to do your last mowing well before they bloom.

Autumn weather

It's rainy and mild today. Autumn in my part of the world. I wish I could go out and do something in the garden, but I will be soaked so fast I'll have blisters before I can get much done.

As I grow older I have come to appreciate the changing of the seasons.Fall color is incidental here but Japanese Maples (Acer palmatum), the native Vine Maple (Acer circinata), Parrotia persica (a member of the Witchhazel Family), the native dogwood (Cornus nuttallii), and a few other can be counted on to color up most years.

With early rains this year it should be a good one for mushrooms and other fungii. Some of them are quite colorful. The Coral Fungi, Clavaria and Ramaria, look a lot like their namesake. Carmine Coral, Ramaria araiospora, is especially pretty with its vivid color. Edible too, but probably fairly insipid. That's the trouble with a lot of wild mushrooms.

Today I saw some Fly Agarics (Amanita muscaria) in excellent condition in the lawn in front of a school. This is an unmistakable mushroom, quite commonly photographed or drawn because of its colorful spotted cap. It's fairly poisonous (and quite frankly looks as though it should be), and is related to deadly things like Amanita ocreata, the Angel of Death mushroom. There are actually edible Amanitas but I leave the whole genus alone. None of them look appetizing to me.