Are you a fan of ranunculus? We may be a little cray cray about them here!
I have only known about ranunculus for a year. Reading Floret's book "Cut Flower Garden" inspired me to consider adding these beauties to my early Spring line-up.
They are hands down one of my favorite flowers but boy! Are they temperamental and finicky!
I can't really blame them though because they're Mediterranean flowers that love dry, warm conditions that I am growing in cold, wet Springtime Illinois.
Before you can plant your corms (the ranunculus version of "bulbs") you want to soak them and we decided to pre-sprout ours to get a head start on our blooms this Spring.
We are constantly testing out what works best for us, the flowers and our garden.
If you've driven by the garden in the winter/early spring months you probably saw some interesting looking structures. These "caterpillar" tunnels are our version of greenhouses that we pop up to encourage warm and dry conditions for ranunculus and other early Spring plants.
They require daily monitoring and care while Spring tries to decide if she's officially broken up with Winter or not. I teeter between opening the side of our caterpillar tunnels to vent for air and double layering the ranunculus with the tunnel and frost cloth.
Check out our set-up in this garden tour here:
Once the weather warms up and we get consistently warmer days, the ranunculus will really take off.
With ruffly double petals, light fragrance that resembles citrus and tall stems, ranunculus are definitely a cut flower favorite.
We expect these beauties to show up in April and stay around till June. Once the weather warms up and heat waves hit, the ranunculus say goodbye and go dormant or die (depending on your zone!)
2023 Varieties we are growing currently. All of these photos are from the corm supplier.
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