The ranunculus lovers among us are often encouraged to try growing them ourselves. And in Southern California, it’s totally do-able, especially if you have a dedicated cutting garden and can treat them as ephemerals, like tulips. Ranuncs love our sunny, cool springs, a fact which professional growers in San Diego County have long exploited. Every once in a great while I’ll pot up some of the claw-like tubers as they become available in fall for containers. (Soak tubers, plant, water well but not so much as to cause rot, watch out for marauding critters, etc.) But mostly I get my ranunc fix from the florist.
An inexpensive alternative to the florist is checking your local nursery for plants this time of year. I brought these home in six-packs, many already in bloom, then potted them on into 4-inch pots to make big, fat, heavy-blooming plants. Check the six-pack carefully; some of the cells contained dead plants, so I swapped out the dead plants for viable plants from other six-packs. Ask a nursery person to help if you’re squeamish about taking charge and doing this yourself.
Ha! I got over my squeamishness on that score years ago. I’m glad you got your fix – the flowers are wonderful while they last (even when they arrive in unexpected colors).
I have a small patch here -fire engine red a color I never would have chosen so one of those mis-labled things. They have persisted in the ground for close to 10 years so I can’t complain. I should get more .Orange, yellow, white- about 20 of each !
Just recently on my garden Twitter feed, the head gardener of some big botanic garden said in response to a question that they use the exact same method to supply their spring display.
To clarify: “exact same method” = six-packs, potted up. Can’t find the tweet now but think it was from gardener at Chicago BG.
I love them, but they are annuals here.