How To Grow Ranunculus
We’ve posted out your #BloomBulbs, so it’s time to get planting, and first up, it’s ranunculus!
You can grow ranunculus at two different times in the year in the UK; Autumn (October/November) or Spring (March). If you have a greenhouse, poly tunnel, or covered space you can plant them in Autumn, but if you haven’t wait until Spring. Beware of animal visitors, they LOVE the taste of these corms and will chomp through them pretty quickly, so keep them in a rodent free place.
Your ranunculus corms will arrive with you looking like dry, little sea creatures. The first thing we need to do is rehydrate them. Here’s how:
1. Place your corms in room temperature water for about three hours, or until they have swelled up nicely.
2. Next we will pre-sprout them. This just gets them established before they go outside in the harsh climate. Half fill a seed tray with moist compost and lay your corms on top. Place them with the legs facing down. Plant them about 7cm apart. Cover over with compost and leave in a cool place to start growing. Keep the soil moist, but not soaking wet!
3. When the corms start to show growth and develop leaves, they can be planted in their final growing place. If you are planting them in the Autumn, I would suggest growing them in a greenhouse or polytunnel. If you grow them in the Spring, you can plant them outside. I like to wait until mine are fairly substantial before I plant them out so they have a good chance of fighting off the slugs!
4. Plant them in their final positions and space the plants about 20cm apart. Water well.
If you grow them in the Autumn, growth will be suspended when the weather gets super cold and then they will shoot up again in the Spring. Give them a feed with liquid seaweed every couple of weeks in the Spring to help keep them healthy and flowering well.