Ranunculus, trying one more time

Vossner - that photo that you showed on March 1 with that pot full of healthy plants - they all died??? how sad.

isn't this pituful?

Oh, Vossner. That is a pity. Any idea what caused it? Was it healthy one day, and dead the next? or more gradual dying over a course of several days? We live in the same climate zone - 9a - have you tried planting them in the ground? I have them tucked here and there throughout my yard. The sunnier spot ones started blooming about a month ago, the ones in the shadier area is starting to bloom now. Maybe you can try that so that one catastrophic event won't wipe out your whole crop? I don't do container gardening - mainly because all it takes is just one day of lack of water and the whole thing dies. In the ground, where there is a sink of water, must less chance of full scale dying off. Don't give up - try them in the ground next year. Once established, they will come back yearly. I picked this bouquet today just for you.

I agree with soils, Nery - you have nothing to lose! I also agree on the container gardening bit and usually only plant annuals in containers but have the same issue about forgetting to water sometimes. Maybe you'll have better luck with them in the ground.

Thanks, soilsandup, for the photo of your beautiful Ranunculus! I wish I could grow them like that.

Wowee, Soilsandup - that's a beautiful bouquet!

Thanks, Nancy and lisabees.

Nancy - it took me several tries before they took hold. Once they got established, they came back every year and is pretty much carefree. That is why I do encourage people to try plants in several different spots, and perhaps one spot will work. Especially with something as inexpensive as ranunculus, you can afford the trial and error.

Does one color perform better than another for you? Is your soil amended? I think this fall I will try them again. It sounds like you leave them in the ground and don't replant them each year. Right?

Nery, sorry yours didn't turn out right. I've had very good luck with them in years past. Though, this last fall due to the excess rain and flood. I skipped planting my usual spring flower bulbs. Though, I did some container plantings. Mine are coming up....but not as vigorous as they were in the ground. Hiya Steve, and everyone. Happy spring.
Kim

Happy Birthday Nery! Hope you have a bloom filled day!

Soils, I third your beautiful bouquets - mine are coming back but don't look like that LOL

Hi Kim! Where the heck have you been? Have not seen you in like - forever!

Nery, it is your birthday? I Hope you are having a wonderful birthday! ^_^

Thank you for the wishes, sweet people. I had a huge slice of amaretto cream pie. I wish the weather would stay just like it is now.

Happy Birthday to you Voss. The cake sounds scrumptious!!! Wishing the weather stays nice on your B-day. Hi Steve, I've been hiding out, because I didn't have much on the Bulbs spring flowers bed to share. But, my garden is awaking with Lilies sprouting. So I'm back.

I cheated and bought plants in the nursery last month.

Yellow Ranunculus

Rose colored Ranunculus

Orange Ranunculus

jealous, jealous and jealous

Voss, remember I can't grow them myself for beans either. I just was lucky enough to find them at the nursery last month and grabbed some up.

Just as my "Tecolote" Ranunculus blooms are coming to an end, I have a nice surprise. These are some of my seed grown "Bloomindale Mix" Ranunculus putting out their first buds. They've been growing for about 90 days and probably should have been started earlier in the winter. Will start them much earlier this next winter so they have more cooler weather to grow in.

Jon

Wow, grown from seed. I can't even grow them from the tubers :-((

If I had to guess, I would say the ones you bought Rita were grown from seed. They may very well be "Bloomingdale" Ranunculus.

Are you saying that those of us that have problems should try from seed? 90 days is a very long time. It would put us in August and it would be too hot for them.

I was hopeful of a decent result when I planted the Ranuculus in container. My best guess is that these tubers require good spacious room to grow (I had success with them planted directly into the garden in years past). This last autumn I scramped dozens of them into a large container with Tulips and hyacinches. Guess what? I've one lone survivor! Drats!

Guys, as far as timing (when to plant Ranunculus), in my zone the time to plant them is in the Fall. By Thanksgiving Holiday the latest. I don't know how those that are grown in GreenHouse.

I'm not sure yet. This winter was my first attempt with both Ranunculus tubers and seed. I do recall reading that the seeds should be sewn when the weather is still very cool and that light frosts don't bother them. I'm guessing that early/mid April would be the best time to sew seeds in your area Rita. I probably should have sewn mine in Mid November instead of late January. Mine are showing some signs of heat stress just as they are beginning to bloom. I probably won;t see too many blooms on them before they die back. Oh well, live and learn.

We cross posted Lily love, and are thoughts were the same. Glad we're in agreement.

Ditto, I bet you if I head out to my fav. nursery now. I can find some great looking Ranunculus. ^_^ . Just FYI too, those don't survive the heat of our climate in the Summer here either.

Sure, rub it in!! I've never seen a Ranunculus plant for sale in South Florida.....never ever. I have no doubt my Ranunculus will croak by early June here in the tropics.

amorecuore, Southern Fla. sounds like heaven to me-- for all the tropicals that I so love. LOL I've got Plumeras that are so heavy and tall to haul around anymore. lol.

LOL. South Florida is heaven from Oct-May. It's the other "thing" from June-Sept. Every place has its gardening advantages and disadvantages. I would say the biggest plus here is that you have an eight month, frost free, winter/spring growing season. That gives you a very generous amount of time to grow many (not all) of your favorite plants that you grew up North in the summer.

Well stated! amorecuore. Back to the subject at hand. Voss, hope we do better with the Ranunculus (the double blooming type) season to come. Happy gardening everyone.

We can't plant the tubers in Autumn here, they will not survive the winter. That means plant in spring. I have tried that many, many times. Maybe next year I will plant them in February if the ground is not frozen and see how that works LOL.

Rita, have you thought of planting them in the garage during the winter? Where they won't get frost bite? I can immagine it's much colder and the ground gets frozen there around Feb.

Nancy - sorry I have not checked back in awhile. In answer to your questions, yes, I have found some colors that do better than others - my salmon and reds do better than the whites, but I don't think that that is a definitive statement by any means - probably just specific to where I have them growing. We have fairly good soil here in California, but I always amend my soil with compost from my compost pile (or steer manure when no compost is available) whenever I plant anything. I am lucky that in my zone, I do leave all the tubers in the ground to overwinter. When I do split them, I do it in early spring when I see signs of growth since I never remember to split them in the fall and I forget where they are until spring. If you do it when they are young enough, they will bounce back after the dividing.

In regards to the heat problems discussed above, all my ranunculuses are just about finished blooming, just before it gets hot here. We sometimes hit 100 degrees in mid May.

Well, I could never have planted anything in February this year. We had snow after snow after snow all during the month of February. But March turned out to be very warm. My garage is detached so very cold in winter. Plus its plagued with mice, yeck.

So would the best time to plant them be in the fall? I live in zone 7a in North Carolina.

From what I've read they're hardy for Zones 8-11 and can be planted in the fall, and spring planting is recommended for Zones 5-7. Also read that they can handles temperatures down to about 27/28 degrees without any damage. If that's the case it may be best to plant them, in the spring, just a couple of weeks prior to your typical "last frost" date.

Took a photo, this evening, of some of my last "Tecolote" Ranunculus blooms for the season.

Jon

Funny that you should post about these bulbs, as just yesterday when I walked my neigbhor back across the street, whose using a walker, she showed them to me and I had no idea that they were bulbs..they look exactly has the picture showed and instructions were very similar that came with them. I don't know why she ordered them, they look like a few hundred there as she can't get down and do any planting. She offered me some but I didn't want to take any. I'd rather have some of her yarrow that is about 3 yrs. old. It needs dividing badly.

We got down to 12 F this winter and mine came back :-) Granted not as "full" as year prior though.

Gosh Kim, we even have the same little weeds with the yellow flowers. What the heck are those anyway?? My ranunculus only produced two flowers so far this spring.

Steve, ironically those little shiny yellow flowers "weeds" we've got is in the family of buttercup ranunculae. It's called buttercup. lol. Every year I allow them to flower then pull them up and rid off. But magically they pop up again next year. So I wondered if the hybrids Ranunculus reverse back to that form? Who knows? Please tell us.

http://www.voyageur.drake.edu/Wacha/buttercup_family/buttercup_flower_family.html