CRAFT- Planting Ranunculus Bulbs

Ranunculus are like the Celine bag of gardening right now. They are everywhere, trending like crazy (and understandably so). These gems are vibrant, colorful, and stunning with layers of petals that burst from wild, beautiful stems.

Naturally, I decided to try and plant my own. To be honest, I tried last year, but I got them in the ground too late and no blooms appeared. Seedlings didn't even appear. It was a pretty epic failure. Somebody call the wah-ambulance. 

It's ok. I'm over it. No wah-ambulance necessary. I've done some research. Ranunculus like to be cool. I'm in the northeast (zone 6) and by June we have weather in the 80's. The sun blazes down on our gardens in a pretty major way and plants that need to be cool when getting rooted don't stand a chance. So for early spring bulbs, that means planting in the late March- late April time frame. 

Back in March I ordered the bulbs of my ranunculus asiaticus (pink, thank you very much). Then I took them out of the pouch and was like "WHO sent me an alien baby child!?!?!?!". Then I realized, this is just how ranunculus baby bulbs look.

Next I googled how to plant said ranunculus. Turns out that you plant them with their weird dagger tails pointing downward (as shown above). I put the bulbs in water to soak for about 30 minutes before planting. Some gardeners say this "wakes up" the dormant bulbs.

Then, the weekend of April 13 I dug a little trench 2" deep in my raised bed, put these babies in the ground about 2" apart from one another, and watered. 

I hope and pray they will sprout! I need their luscious buds for super adorable flower arrangements (clearly!). My only concern is that if we have a warm spring, it might not get cool enough for these to thrive. We shall see! Fingers crossed.

Image via House of Design