I think the critters are your main worry - voles in particular. Voles are quite capable of entering pots through their drain holes, so maybe cover the drain holes with aluminum window screen or quarter inch hardware cloth and enclose the top. I believe saffron is fairly forgiving wrt soil type but don't have much direct knowledge. I have heard they grow fine in clay soil with a slope for drainage, but no personal experience. The voles care nothing for the flowers and foliage. Only the bulbs. With this in mind, I have had success planting the bulbs 3" or more deep and embedding half inch hardware cloth over the soil so it extends a foot or so past the bulbs in every direction. The flowers and foliage seem to find their way through the hardware cloth just fine and the method should protect other similar bulbs with fine foliage too. Note, I use half inch hardware cloth embedded in the soil or quarter inch above ground. Either seems sufficient. As far as planting time, I can't recall the exact date they will start growing but they will bloom (at least the larger ones) sitting on a shelf if you don't plant them in time and they will be pushing leaves at the same time. I will plant mine toward the end of August to be safe. Tim On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 8:41 PM EJ via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Hi Tim, > A Big Thank You! to you and your friend for sharing the saffron bulbs! > :-) they look like a good size, and I hope I can get them to grow and bloom. > Seems like they are a fall bulb and some say plant immediately. > Although they came from an in-ground bed, I’m thinking of planting them in > a deep at least 6” pot with the 2 parts horticultural sand, 1 perlite, and > 1 compost (tho Jane McGary recommended forest humus and coarse sand). Plus > sand and granite below for drainage. Would that work? > Question for all is: should I plant and water it now ? > I’m in SF Bay Area, probably a zone 9b. With Very dry summers, no rain > till late October and I’m afraid of critters eating them up. > > Much thanks, > -Elaine. > > > > saffron > Tim Eck via pbs (Wed, 01 Jul 2020 14:54:27 PDT) > All, > A friend is going to take out a saffron bed and I will plant them but I > should be able to spare a few hundred offsets for the BX if there is any > interest. (That's meant as a question) > tim > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…