How to Grow and Take Care of Ranunculus Flowers

The Ranunculus, also known as the Persian buttercup or the rose of the spring, which can grow to ten to twenty-four inches, must be one of natures miracles when you consider flowering bulbs to be a mystery of nature since the plant produces over three dozen flowers at a time. Preferring a full sun exposure and blooms in spring and summer, the Ranunculus is beautiful with its white, pink, red, yellow, and purple flowers and is native to the Mediterranean. In this article, you will learn how to grow and take care of ranunculus flowers.

How to grow the ranunculus

Ranunculus flowers are popular wedding flowers since they aren’t all that expensive, they are showy, beautiful and they last for a long time as cut flowers. People who attend flower arrangements are likely to run into them, and people after often tempted to touch their soft surface, but this could bruise the plant’s delicate petals which are tissue paper thin. The best time to grow them will be in full sun conditions since the flowers prefer sunny conditions but they don’t tolerate really hot climates – plant the tubers into the ground at the full sun with the claw-like ends pointing downwards. Cover them with an inch of soil.

How to take care of the ranunculus flowers

If you have heavy soil at hand to grow the flowers, add peat moss or you can plant them in raised beds. Adding a small amount of bone meal during the planting time is perfectly fine to do, though it isn’t completely necessary for ranunculus tubers. Water the bulbs during planting, but don’t water often until the growth of the flowers appears. This will help avoid rot. The tubers of the ranunculus flowers may look wizened, but that’s normal – there isn’t any need to soak the flowers with water prior to planting them. You can soak the tubers, but don’t overdo it. An overnight soak will be enough to encourage the corms to begin swelling. Ranunculus flowers are British flowers, they tend to thrive in cool weather of fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit. In America, they can grow just as well, but they don’t grow well in the deep south as they need cool summers.

Growing the Ranunculus Flowers in the garden

Plant the ranunculus flowers when all the threat of frost has gone. Choose a spot in the garden which has full sun conditions with soil which is particularly well drained with rich sandy ground – the flowers like that kind of environment. If you can, plant the ranunculus near flowers which are other spring bloomers such as tulips or larkspur. Dig up three to four inches of compost, or if you have well-rotted manure into the top, from six up to eight inches of soil at the planting site. Just make sure the flowers are nowhere near areas where puddles remain after a rainfall.

Plant the tubers two inches below the soil. Tubers and bulbs are considered the best way to grow these flowers. The tubers are similar in appearance to a common root, however, they are similar in structure to bulbs from common plants. Once you’ve finished the planting water the area but don’t use too much. Three or four inches should be sufficient, and it will only take the tubers only a minute to absorb the water. The bulbs will sprout within fifteen to twenty days of planting.

Seeds are also a way of planting ranunculus flowers if the tubers are unavailable. To grow the flowers from seeds, sow a place in your garden in pre-moistened compost which is suitable for seed sowing – meaning it has to be lightweight. Don’t cover the seeds with any soil, keep the soil moist at all times while keeping the seeds exposed to sunlight. Keep the seeds at a stable temperature of twenty-one degrees centigrade while keeping them cooler at night. In two to three weeks the seeds should have germinated into little plants.

Once they have a dozen or so leaves, transplant the new plants into larger pots while protecting them from frost. If you wish you can move the plants to the outdoors the next spring.

Planting the Ranunculus flowers in pots

It’s best to plant the flowers into pots between six and eight weeks before the last frost. Store the plants in their pots in places where the temperature can be controlled and the temperatures will not drop to freezing. These places can be the garage, the basement, or an outbuilding. The bottom of the pot needs to be filled with gravel or small stones, about a quarter, though only a few; this will improve the drainage quality.

Use a general potting soil with perlite until you get two-quarters soil with a one-quarter mix of perlite Fill the pot to the brim with this mixture. Plant the ranunculus two inches deep into the mix in the pot while making sure the ‘claw’ is facing downwards. Space the bulbs apart between four and five inches. Now water the pot until the water emerges from the bottom.