Saffron calendar

In the field today

1. June — July

   Summer dormancy

   The leaves have dried. The corm rests in warm, dry soil and forms the flower of the coming autumn inside itself. No watering — it would break the sleep.

2. August — early September

   Planting

   The corms are lifted, the largest are selected and replanted 12–15 cm deep. One field bears for 4–5 years.

3. September

   Awakening

   With the first autumn rain the corm wakes: white roots go down, and a shoot in a white sheath goes up.

4. October

   Sprouting

   The shoot breaks through the soil. Inside the sheath, a violet bud rises together with the leaves.

5. Late October — November

   Flowering and harvest

   The field turns violet. Each flower lives for one day — it is picked by hand at dawn, and its three red stigmas are separated and dried the same day.

6. December — March

   Winter leaves

   The flowering is over; the work is not. Slender green leaves gather sunlight all winter and feed the daughter corms forming on top of the mother corm.

7. April — May

   Corms maturing

   The leaves yellow and lie down. All the strength passes into the new corms; the old one shrivels. The cycle closes.