Great article!
I've been growing saffron for a couple years now. I can try to dig up the website where I got my corms, but I just used Google to find a place with decent prices.
I have some plants in the ground and others in a container (about five gallons, and I think I started with 12 plants in it). The ones in the container have actually grown and divided much better than the ones in the ground for me, but neither produces as much saffron as I thought they would - I get about a teaspoon a year now total. I may have not found the perfect growing conditions for them yet, so I'm hopeful about improving yields.
I don't deal with voles, but squirrels love to dig up tasty morsels in my yard. When I planted the saffron, I put a piece of hardware cloth (1/2"x1/2" mesh) over the area with a couple bricks to keep it in place, then mulched over it all. The saffron leaves are narrow enough to pass right through the holes, but it keeps anything from digging in.
