Friday, December 4, 2009

Growing Flowering bulbs in warm climates - Ranunculus

This is the second article in this series. Ranunculus asiaticus with common name Persian buttercup Bloomingdale series. Here they reach around 10 inches in height and around 15 inches wide. They come in various color including yellow, red, white, blue and some bi-colors. Flowers are long lasting even in vases.
Here in lahore, Pakistan the price of each corm Rs 20 this year. Plants grown from seed germinate late but come to flowering early and have larger flowers. Price of each seedling is Rs 25 in single plastic cell.

1- Buy biggest corm. Soaking will help but not mandatory. I did not soak and result was fine. This was the corm
Ranunculus asiaticus tuber corm















2- Plant it 2 inches deep in a well drained soil which could retain moisture. The corm moisture to sprout roots. Remember plant claws down or in other words plant as shown in the above picture.

This is the situation after one month. I planted 3 corms this pot and so far they are doing fine.

Ranunculus asiaticus leaves















We plant corms in November and it flowers in January/February and flowers go till March. Remember to save this plant from heavy rains as last year one of my big plant having lots of buds (grown from seed) was ruined by heavy showers in March.

3- After flowers have finished blooming, let the leaves gather the energy and store in corm. when leaves also start to fade, cut the foliage and dry them in shade. Save for next year. Although this was not successful when i tried it. I think it is better to keep it in ground and hope it will multiply itself. I was told that fresh corms better results.

Plants from seeds take around three years to form usable corms. They also end their first bud after third or fourth leaf stage. Remember to remove first bud of the plant so that plant could establish strong root system and forthcoming flowers will be larger. Give this plant semi shade. In our mild winters, we try to avoid it from mid day sun specially if planted in a pot.

They are suitable to our zone 10b just like narcissus paperwhite and anemone so do plant them and you will have fun when you will see really large and beautiful blooms.

Update after 2.5 months: Here are the flowers.
 Ranunculus asiaticus persian buttercup 

pink Ranunculus asiaticus

Next Bulb: Forcing Hyacinth bulbs in water

8 comments:

Nell Jean said...

My attempt at growing ranunculus was a total failure. My gardening guru, Miss Billie, had beautiful ranunculas, newly planted each year. Passersby would stop to ask her what they were.

I think voles may have eaten my bulbs.

Now, on to hyacinths, one of my favs!

Rosey Pollen said...

I just read Nell Jeans comment and I think voles really are out to destroy my garden as well!
I didn't know that ranunculus bulbs were so tiny! I haven't tried growing these. But I have grown hyacinths and they smell divine!
Thanks

Rosey

azplantlady said...

So informative and the photos really help as well. Thank you for taking the time to explain how to grow Ranunculus.

Katherine Janquart said...

Hey,
Thanks for visiting my blog. I like your blog, very good resource.

Wendy said...

I love ranunculus. I love the sheer number of petals - it's amazing. I've alwasy been hesitant to buy it since they are only annuals here, but maybe I'll try planting corms as you've shown! It will seem less painful if I don't get to save it from the cold.

Christine B. said...

It's amazing to me that something as unpromising as a little corm (it looked a bit like a baby octopus, no?) can grow into a beautiful Ranunculus. They are not much grown here in Alaska but I find them to be very lovely. Keep up the great how-to posting.
Cheers from the Last Frontier,
Christine B.

Abby Lanes said...

Oh, i am going to the flower fields in So. Cal soon where they have rainbow fields of ranunculas. It is so stunning. Thanks for the information. I will try to grow a few too.

Eli said...

beautiful blog. I saw the interesting bee on some of the flowers in your photos...it has a striped head. Do you know what it is called?

your photos are lovely. I'll be back. thanks for having a look at my bee blog.

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