I wrote about ranunculus back in the fall, because that was the time for planting them. But right now, in spring, we’re knee-deep in blooming ranunculus, so it seemed like a good time for a photo essay on this spring flower.
Ranunculus is a terrible name for something so beautiful, but I don’t know of an alternative common name. Most people don’t know what theses flowers are – they look like roses, sometimes you see them in gardens but rarely at a florist’s shop. So what are they?
Ranunculus are spring flowers that grow from bulbs, or more correctly, from corms. They come in nearly every color except blue and purple, and some varieties have petal edges of darker color (picotee).
Ranunculus corms are planted in fall, they sprout a few weeks later and grow slowly through the winter, speed up growth in early spring, and then send up gorgeous flowers. They don’t like heat, so they die back as soon as the weather gets too warm. The foliage withers, and if you do nothing else to them, there’s a good chance that they’ll come back next year and bloom again. You can read about the best way to pre-sprout and plant ranunculus corms in the fall in my blog post here. Or you can simply look at the pretty pictures ( :
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