Called the rose of spring and for good reason, they look quite a bit like roses. They can be divas to grow though. They originate from the Mediterranean region, so overwintering here isn't possible in my zone of 5b, without quite a lot of protection, they can handle temps down to 20 degrees and don't like when the temperatures soar into the 80's. Another thing to keep in mind is that it takes about 3 months from starting them till bloom.
The way I came up with to get these flowers to bloom in the best possible conditions, is to start them in my basement under grow lights, (the second week of January seems to be my sweet spot) I begin the process by soaking the corms (they look like little octopuses) 3-4 hours in water, leave the water turned on just slightly so that it continues to drip into the container, providing them with a tiny bit of oxygen, after soaking rinse them off well, then you're ready to put them into soil, the soil should be only slightly damp, since they have a tendency to rot if too wet, my preferred container is a 50 cell deep tray, since they will actually start to grow I want plenty of space for nice healthy roots. they only need to just be covered with soil, after putting them into the growing medium, put them somewhere slightly cool, I use my basement which is only slightly cooler than the rest of the house, they don't need a light until you see some growth pushing through, check every few days and keep them moist, as the top tends to become dry, but only mist, since you don't want them too wet, once they are growing the issue of rot pretty much goes away, it'll take about 2 weeks or a bit more till they are pushing shoots.
From this point on keep them watered well, I like to add liquid fish about once a week to fertilize them, if they are planted in something deep like I suggested they will happily grow in there for 6-8 weeks or more. Close to planting out time they need to be hardened off, which is introducing them to the outdoors, I what the weather pretty closely around this time, we might have a favorable week coming up then I start accordingly, The first day I have them outside I like if it's fairly warm, and leave them out for several hours, each day several hours more for 4-5 days, then they should be hardened off and ready to plant.
This brings us to planting! Mine go into an unheated tunnel, usually the end of Feb. or beginning of March, amend the soil with about 2 inches of good compost, then you're ready to plant! 6-9" spacing is what is recommended, it is good this early in the season to have several layers of frost cloth on hand to cover them with if the temperatures plummet, which has always been the case, I usually cover every night that it's supposed to go under freezing, if the temps are supposed to dip really low I have already covered with 8 layers and they survived it! this was temps down in the single digits.
Keep them watered and fertilized since these are hungry plants, there's a lot of growth coming out of that tiny corm, and we want them to bloom yet! So far the first blooms for me have been the end of April, beginning of May. They'll bloom for several weeks, it depends how spring comes on here in Platteville WI we can go from mild spring to summer temps in short order, since mine are usually in the hoophouse as soon as the nights aren't going below freezing I'll roll up the sides and that's where it stays, Mulching the soil helps keep the roots cooler and watering by drip irrigation during the hottest part of the day seemed to help with this, it seems as soon as we have several days in the upper 80's they'll start yellowing and preparing to go dormant. so we enjoy them while we can.
How to know when to cut them: Once the bud feels squishy like a marshmallow it is ready to harvest, ranunculus have an excellent vase life, 7-14 days, if you want them for a special occasion you can store them in a cooler or refrigerater for up to 6 weeks, if you want to do that cut them a little before they are at the marshmallow stage.
Even if these lovelies take extra care they really are worth it!
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