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Home / Gardening / Why You Should Grow Saffron

Why You Should Grow Saffron

August 6, 2018 by Horsford Team

First off, who doesn’t love a fall-flowering plant? Saffron’s beauty and landscape opportunity should sell itself, but there are far more reasons why saffron should end up in your garden and on your dinner plate.

Health Benefits

Its real health benefits lie in the saffron stigmas (Pictured above). These sticky orange-red stigmas are the part of the plant used globally for culinary cuisines. The saffron stigmas contain carotenoids which are powerful antioxidants that help regulate stress, cancer, infections, and that help boost immune function. Considering 80% of your immune health comes from your gut, we could all use a little more saffron in our diet. Nutritionally, saffron is very high in iron, manganese, copper, potassium, calcium, selenium, zinc, and magnesium. It also contains high mineral sources, such as vitamin A, folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin-C.

Saffon in Your Garden

Saffron can grow in a variety of conditions, but would do best in a garden bed. This crocus variety is a corm and should be grown like any other bulb such as tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. They are a hot and dry loving plant and growing saffron can be an easy addition for any gardener, and offers not only landscape beauty but a healthy investment with a delicious return.

Harvested saffron flowers

Saffron Available at Horsford’s

This fall we will be offering saffron corms at:

10 corms – $15
25 corms – $35
50 corms – $60

Saffron corms

There will be a limit of 50 corms per customer. Supplies are limited, so if you plan to plant some saffron in your landscape, please contact us and pre-order today! Call the nursery at (802) 425-2811, or email info@horsfordnursery.com.

We will also be joining you and planting some saffron here at Horsford’s, in an effort to develop a sustainable, nutrient rich, growing medium for Vermont saffron growers! Stay tuned, as the projects begin this fall.

-Saffron Production Team aka Steve

Filed Under: Edibles, Gardening, Greenhouse

Reader Interactions

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  • Are you heading to the @vtflowershow next weekend? If you want to see some tulips in bloom (among MANY other wonderful plants) this is the weekend stop for you! Starts March 1 at @champlainvalleyexpo
  • “Your kind never sees us whole. You miss the half of it, and more. There’s always as much below ground as above.”
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Fun fact: we have a book club here amongst the #horsfordteam. We call ourselves The Bookworm Castings Club (not joking) 😂🐛🍎
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Right now we’re in the middle of The Overstory by Richard Powers. It’s all about trees and our connections to them. 🌳 Surprisingly it’s the first plant book we’ve read!
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PS: If you guys have more book suggestions we’d love to hear!
  • This one’s a little dense. Bear with us. 🤔
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You usually hear about new growth or new wood when learning about how a plant flowers and when to prune. ✂️
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Blooms on NEW wood = flowers are on current season’s growth. You can usually prune these in early spring, late fall or winter. Examples include summer bloomers like spiraea and hydrangea paniculata and arborescens.
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Blooms on OLD wood = flowers are on last year’s growth. Don’t prune these in spring; you’ll be cutting off flowers! It’s best to prune immediately after flowering so they have time to set buds for next season (that will then bear flowers). These are your early spring bloomers like forsythia, quince and lilacs.
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New growth is flexible and can be followed back to a woodier stem which was the previous year’s growth. During the winter, what was the current season’s growth becomes more rigid and woody in order to support the next season’s growth. In a way, a shrub or tree is building the framework that supports itself and you can see it if you look closely! 🌳 .
Think about it.
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Woody plants only grow taller by adding new growth. If you carve your name in a young sapling at 4 feet off the ground, your name will still be 4 feet off the ground 200 years later. It’s fun to think about how this differs from animal growth. Imagine if we sprouted “new growth” every year! 🤓
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More in our story!
  • Blooming #buddleia and #butterflies for your Valentine’s Day 🥰
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#gardencountdown #tbt #happyvalentinesday #thisisvt #butterflybush
  • We’ll admit, deadheading isn’t the most lovely-sounding term! The practice can result in lovely-looking plants though.
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Remember, a plant’s lofty goal is to go to seed so it can reproduce. Deadheading diverts energy from those seeds back into more flowers (that ultimately go to seed again).
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When deadheading, look for dead flowers since this is usually where seeds are. Be sure to cut the flower stalk too all the way down to the next set of leaves. Otherwise you’ll be left with tall dead stalks. When you can, try to have the cut hidden by the plant’s remaining foliage.
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Deadheading isn’t necessary but it can definitely help annuals last longer and perennials bloom later.
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Petunias, marigolds, zinnia, and many perennials are commonly deadheaded so they bloom again. Roses can also benefit from deadheading.
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Some gardeners don’t prefer deadheading because birds and other wildlife depend on seeds. Some plants also have quite decorative seed heads so it’s nice to keep them for that reason too.
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See examples of deadheading in our story!

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2111 Greenbush Road | Charlotte, Vermont 05445
(802) 425-2811 | info@horsfordnursery.com
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