Ranunculus, with their layers of delicate, rose-like petals and vibrant colors, are a favourite among gardeners and florists alike. These elegant, perennial flowers may look complicated, but with a little care and planning, they can be grown successfully. Not only are these flowers incredibly beautiful, they are early bloomers, a very welcome arrival in Spring. This is our third year growing Ranunculus, so we thought we would share what we have learned and also the varieties that we have chosen this year.
Preferred Conditions
Ranunculus prefer cool conditions, they do like sunshine but prefer the cooler temperatures of Spring rather than hot summer sunshine. They thrive in daytime temperatures between 10-18°C (50-65°F) and enjoy cooler nights.
They like well-drained soil so be sure to add compost and build your beds up a bit if your garden tends to be soggy. You can plant your ranunculus in your garden beds and borders or pots. If using pots ensure they have really good draining and fill them with a good quality compost.
Choosing your Ranunculus
Ranunculus is a large genus of over 1750 flowering plants, and includes the common Buttercup.
When buying your Ranunculus, you want to look for Ranunculus asiaticus (Persian Buttercup) this is a cultivated form of the genus and contains lots of lovely varieties.
This year we are growing the following varieties:
Picotee Orange and Picotee Cafe au Lait from Parkers and Elegance Bianco, Elegance Salmone and Elegance Pastello from Italian Ranunculus.
A note on cost - the Italian Ranunculus can be pretty pricey, with individual corms coming in at as much as 75 to £1 each. If it your first time growing ranunculus, the Pictoee range which you can buy from Parkers or Farmer Gracy is a good place to start, lovely colours and lots of rufflles, you can pick up 30 corms for around £10.
Preparing and planting
We plant our ranunculus out in late winter, usually around early to mid February, this gives us flowers from the end of April to the beginning of June. You can also plant them out in late autumn and you will have them flowering earlier, but be aware you may need to protect them when temperatures fall below freezing over winter.
Ranunculus corms are very strange creatures, they look like little dried crustaceans. When you buy your corms make sure you store them somewhere cool and dry (and away from mice) before planting
Soaking the dry corms in room temperature water for a few hours before planting helps them to rehydrate and will speed up the sprouting process slightly. We soak ours for 4 to 5 hours in bowls in the kitchen, don't leave them overnight as they may begin to rot.
When the corms have been soaked they are ready for planting, you can either plant them straight out into your borders and pots or you can pre sprout them in trays. We pre sprout ours in trays of compost for a few weeks, this basically means you tuck them into a shallow tray of compost, and leave them somewhere dark and cool, until they start to sprout and send up shoots. We start ours in trays with lids, at the beginning of Jan, and plant them outside from mid February, by which time they are small, sturdy little plants.
For sprouting we plant in shallow seed trays in damp, peat free compost and then cover with a lid. As long as the compost doesn't dry out too much, we don't usually water them after that until they are planted outside as they do not like being overwatered and it can cause them to rot or mould. We leave them in one of our barns in a cool, dark place.
The main benefits of pre sprouting are that we can protect the corms from mice (mice LOVE ranunculus corms, however they seem to lose interest when they have sprouted), and we are planting out healthy plants that have had a good start so they seem to fare better.
We plant them straight into our outdoor beds from mid to the end of February, we have good drainage here at the farm but we always add a good layer of mulch to improve it further. Ranunculus are fairly hardy, however they will need some protection from prolonged heavy frosts, so if the temperatures drop we protect them by covering with gardening fleece.
This year we may start some in late Autumn so we have earlier flowers, the process will be exactly the same, however we will start the sprouting process in early Nov and plant out in December, but we will need to provide protection throughout winter when temperatures are below freezing.
When you plant them out space them approximately 6" apart and 2-3 " deep, you do not want to overcrowd them as this can encourage powdery mildew to form. Water them well after planting, followed by regular but moderate watering, do not let the soil dry out but equally do not let the soil get too wet, rancunculus do not like to be sat in waterlogged soil. When you start to see flowering stems (you will see buds start to form) you may want to feed them with a slow release fertilizer which you can repeat a couple of times to prolong the flowering period.
 Harvesting Blooms
After all your care and attention growing them, you want to ensure you get the most out of your flowers when they arrive, so here are a few tips on harvesting ranunculus.
Timing: Harvest when the buds feel firm and have just started to open for the longest vase life.
Technique: Use clean, sharp scissors or snips to cut stems at an angle early in the morning.
Aftercare: Place the cut stems in cool water immediately. Ranunculus blooms can last up to 10 days in a vase if cared for properly.
Post season care
When your Ranunculus have finished flowering you can either:
Lift your corms -In colder climates, dig up the corms after the foliage dies back. Clean and store them in a cool, dry place until the next planting season when you can plant them again.
Leave them in - In milder climates, you can leave corms in the ground to naturalize or replant for another season of blooms.
We hope you found this article useful and it has inspired you to give Ranunculus a go, they are one of our absolute favourites, the perfection of their petals is pretty hard to match! Drop us a message if you have any questions we will be happy to help.
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