ranunculus Archives

how to plant ranunculus with Beautiful ranunculus flower on blurred background

Ranunculus are not only delightful to receive as cut flowers in a bouquet but also make an enchanting addition outdoors in your garden or as container plants. Once you know your USDA hardiness zone for the time of planting and a little know-how, you’ll soon be able to enjoy these beautiful flowers year after year.

Where ranunculus grow

Ranunculus are herbaceous perennials that thrive in mild winters, long, cool springs, and balmy summers. They don’t do well in hot, humid conditions or tolerate prolonged freezing temperatures. Ranunculus are hardy in USDA zones 8 to 10 and can be grown as perennials where temperatures typically don’t plunge below 25 degrees. In colder zones, however, they are grown as annuals.

When to plant ranunculus

In warm areas, zones 8 to 10, it’s best to plant ranunculus in the fall, when there is no danger of prolonged freezing temperatures. Ranunculus planted in the fall will bloom continuously for six to seven weeks in the springtime. In the colder zones, 4 to 7, plant them in the winter or early spring; they are not entirely hardy in freezing temperatures and will not survive the winter. Spring-planted ranunculus will bloom for four to six weeks in the late spring and summer.

how to plant ranunculus with Hands planting ranunculus flower on light background

Where to plant ranunculus

Locating your ranunculus in the right spot is essential to their growth. In most cases, they will need full sun for six to eight hours a day. However, in areas where temperatures soar and the sun is harsh, it’s best to grow them in a place that gets bright shade rather than direct sun during the hottest part of the day.

They will also need light, well-draining soil to prevent root rot. If your soil is heavy, dense, and doesn’t drain well, amend it with some compost or peat moss to give it better drainage and maintain a slightly acidic pH at about 6.0 to 6.5. Stay away from planting in low areas with soggy soil and pooling water.

Air circulation around the plants is essential, too, since they are susceptible to powdery mildew that thrives in close, humid conditions. Choose an open spot that gets a breeze, and don’t crowd the plants together.

Ranunculus do very well in containers. Use a light organic potting mix amended with perlite or peat (to increase the drainage) and make sure the pot has one drainage hole at minimum to keep the roots from sitting in water.

How to plant ranunculus

You can grow ranunculus from seeds, tubers, or plants from a nursery. Most gardeners prefer to start them from tubers, but it is also possible from seed.

Starting from seed

Ranunculus are “half hardy,” meaning they can withstand short bouts of cold but not prolonged freezing temperatures. In warmer areas, plant the seeds in the garden and cover them with a thin blanket of soil after all danger of frost has passed. If cold weather is predicted, you can cover them with a protective cloth, especially at nighttime.

In either warm or cool zones, you can start seeds indoors during the winter in a light, well-draining, seed-starting mix 12 to 16 weeks before your zone’s last frost date in the spring. Spread a light covering of soil over the seeds, and keep them moist and at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They should sprout in 10 to 15 days, and after 60 days, when four or five true leaves appear, they should be ready to transplant into the garden or a container. Ranunculus will bloom four to six months after sowing the seeds.

Starting from tubers

When you buy tubers, make sure they are dry, firm, and whole, without breaks or splits. They come in different sizes or grades, and bigger tubers will grow more vigorous plants that produce more flowers.

Some gardeners like to soak the tubers in tepid water for one to three hours (no more!) before planting. They absorb the water and puff up, becoming more flexible and less likely to break. Soaking the tubers wakes them from dormancy and gives them a head-start on growing roots. At this point, it is optional to “pre-sprout” the tubers before planting them in the garden or a container. Plant them with the claws facing downward in a moist seed-starting mix in a shallow tray and cover them with a quarter-inch of soil. Keep the tray cool, and they should begin to develop small roots after one to two weeks. Then, they’re ready to plant.

how to plant ranunculus with Woman planting presoaked ranunculus corms into a seed tray. — *One way to grow ranunculus* is soaking the tubers in water and then “pre-sprouting” them in a seed tray before planting them in the ground.

You can easily fertilize the tubers by mixing some compost with the soil before planting them. This gives the plants a boost of nutrition, and also ensures good drainage. Fertilize container-grown plants once a month with a high phosphorus, water-soluble fertilizer, and dilute it to half-strength to protect the roots.

When planting, orient the ranunculus tubers with the claws pointing downward — three to four per square foot for small tubers and up to 8 inches apart for larger ones — and cover them with 1 to 2 inches of soil. For container planting, space them no closer than 6 inches apart so there will be enough air circulation between them. Water them well after planting, and keep the soil slightly moist. This is important since ranunculus will not tolerate overly wet soil and may develop root rot. You should see sprouts after 10 to 15 days and blooms 90 days after planting.

Caring for garden ranunculus

While your ranunculus is actively growing and blooming, deadhead the spent flowers to encourage more flowering. Keep the soil cool, moist, and weed-free with a layer of mulch.

The plants will bloom from spring into the summer, but when the flowers fade and the plants begin to yellow, stop watering and let them die down naturally. This will allow them to absorb more nutrients and become stronger for next year’s growth.

If you want to overwinter the tubers in the ground and live in zones 8 to 10, cut the plants down in the fall and spread a layer of mulch near the plants to protect them from the cold.

If you live in zones 7 or colder, dig the tubers up in the fall and allow them to dry out. Then, keep them cool and dry in the winter or early spring until planting time next year.

Exquisite ranunculus blooms aren’t only attractive to humans — bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies love the blossoms, making the flowers an excellent choice for a pollinator garden. But deer and rabbits will stay away since all parts of ranunculus are toxic to animals.

Familiar yellow buttercups pop up in the spring and summer on lawns and along roadsides, streambanks, and meadows. Their scientific name is ranunculus, an ancient genus of about 600 species, thought to be over 5 million years old. The cousins of these humble wildflowers are the elegant, refined ranunculus we see today in gardens, arrangements, and wedding bouquets that look like blooms from a fairy tale.

They are hybrids of a species called Ranunculus asiaticus, or Persian buttercup, sometimes known as turban buttercup or rose of spring. The parent of these beauties is a little wildflower native to the eastern Mediterranean region, from the island of Cyprus through Turkey and east to Iran. It grows low to the ground, with five red or yellow petals and a black center.

Ranunculus flowers have been cultivated in Europe for millennia and were all the rage in Victorian times. Over the past hundred years, however, Italian, French, Israeli, and American breeders created hybrids of this species. They are prized for their wide array of colors, curly stems, and large, exquisite flowers that are reliable bloomers.

These lovely plants grow to be 1 to 2 feet in height, with one to several cupped blossoms on fuzzy stems atop a rosette of finely cut, dissected leaves. They have distinctive black anthers and come in a rainbow of bright and pastel colors: white, yellow, apricot, orange, pink, red, fuchsia, burgundy, and picotee (bicolor). Depending on the variety, the flowers are single, like poppies, or double, with paper-thin, overlapping petals that resemble peonies or roses. Some popular cultivars have an impressive 100 to 130 petals in each flower and can be 2 to 5 inches in diameter.

Popular varieties of ranunculus flowers

Here are six of the most beautiful varieties of ranunculus seen today.

Accolade – This compact variety grows 8 inches high, with creamy yellow double petals edged in light pink, similar to a peace rose.

Amandine – The ruffled petals of these double flowers, along with their higher heat tolerance, make this a standout variety. Amandine grows from 10 to 14 inches at maturity and comes in various colors.

Aviv – This impressive variety is excellent for cut flowers due to its tall, 12-to-14-inch stems and large double blooms that are 4 to 5 inches across. It comes in mixed colors, including picotee.

Cloni – The top-rated, Italian-bred Cloni series includes three groups of varieties: Cloni Success, Cloni Pon-pon, and Elegance. The flowers are larger than most other ranunculus varieties, and come in elegant blushing pink, cream, coral, red, and vivid orange. Cloni grows between 1 and 2 feet tall.

Telecote – The acclaimed Telecote series features peony-like double flowers with both pastel and bright colors. It is a prolific bloomer and excellent for cut flowers due to its 24-inch stems, with eight to 10 stems per plant.

Tomer – This little beauty is a dwarf ranunculus, growing only 10 inches high, making it perfect for pots and low borders. It is wind and rain tolerant, and comes in white, pink, red, yellow, orange, and purple.

Uses of ranunculus flowers

Ranunculus are beloved for their vibrant colors, whimsical stems, voluminous paper-thin petals, and sweet nature. Their big, bright blooms, with a vase life of eight days to two weeks, make them an excellent choice as cut flowers for arrangements, centerpieces, and wedding bouquets. The wide array of vibrant colors makes ranunculus arrangements versatile and appropriate for all occasions, including birthdays, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or just because.

In the home, a ranunculus arrangement can grace a dining table or desk, or serve as an accent anywhere a splash of color is needed. In the garden, ranunculus are beautiful in mass plantings as a spring border or in a pollinator garden. In containers, they are a cheerful addition to a porch, a patio, or an entryway, or around a pool.

Caring for cut ranunculus flowers

Your 20-stem box of multicolored ranunculus will arrive with the flowers in the bud stage. These should fully bloom within 24 to 36 hours. They may be droopy at first but will perk up when you put them in water.

First, remove the flowers from the box. The stems should be firm, but they will bruise easily, so you’ll need patience and a gentle hand when holding them. Snip half an inch off the bottom of each stem at an angle with clean scissors or a knife.

Next, fill a clean vase with water and pour in the flower food from one of the included packets. Arrange the flowers in the vase by first putting in the filler plants, such as ferns, to give it a structure to build from, and then add the flowers one at a time.

Keep the arrangement in a cool place out of the sun and away from any drafts. Replace the water in the vase every two or three days to keep algae from growing, mixing in half of the second flower food packet. If the bottoms of the stems become soft and begin to decay, cut them off at an angle again to keep the flowers as fresh as possible.

Occasionally, a stem will bend or collapse under the weight of a bloom. If this happens, cut the stem off just above the bend and put it in a bud vase or small container that will support the flower.

By keeping the ends of the stems freshly cut and providing clean water every few days, you can extend the vase time of ranunculus to two weeks.

(Interested in planting ranunculus in the ground but don’t know where to start? Our helpful guide will teach you everything you need to know about growing ranunculus in a garden.)

Meaning and symbolism of ranunculus

In floriography, the ancient language spoken through flowers, ranunculus blossoms symbolize charm and attractiveness. When you find yourself drawn to someone because of their beauty and allure, and want to show them how you feel, your gift of ranunculus flowers will tell the story.

8 fun facts about ranunculus

ranunculus flowers with stages of blooming

The genus name Ranunculus means “little frog.” It comes from Rana, the Latin word for frog, and unculus, meaning “little.”
Crowfoot is another name for ranunculus because of its claw-shaped tubers.
Ranunculus flowers are lovely to look at, but they are not fragrant. In fact, most varieties have no scent at all!
1-800-Flowers.com gets its ranunculus flowers from Ecuador. The warm sunshine and cool nights of the Andes Mountains make this an ideal setting for the blossoms to thrive.
Fossilized ranunculus seeds dating back 5 million years, from the Pliocene Era, have been found in the mountains of Germany and China.
The shiny, yellow buttercup flower you held under your chin as a child doesn’t mean you like butter. The petals have special reflective cells that attract pollinators from far away.
A Persian legend tells of a young prince who fell desperately in love with a beautiful nymph. She spurned his declarations of love time and again, so he died of a broken heart and turned into a ranunculus flower.
As beautiful as these flowers are, all parts of them are toxic.

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How to Plant Ranunculus