Here is another kind of Crocus, not one of the spring flowering species like the "Tommies" and the Snow Crocus mentioned in my last entry. This is the autumn flowering Saffron Crocus- I bought several pots at the London Potato Fair last week. Actually I didn't buy any potatoes though there were dozens of varieties for the spud loving allotmenteer!
 Crocus sativus hails from the Mediterranean, some speculate it might have originated in Asia. It is thought to be a cultivated variety rather than a wild species. We have lived in a global economy for a long time as the travels of this edible spice demonstrate.
 Saffron Walden in Essex was at the heart of the industry in the Middle Ages. Elsewhere there was "Croh-denu" which is Anglo-Saxon for "Valley of the Crocuses" (though now we call it the London Borough of Croydon).
 Anyway I've planted these pots each containing five or six bulbs on the allotment and I hope to harvest the fine filaments of the flowers in autumn to spice up my life.