A Guide to Growing and Caring for Butterfly Ranunculus

Learn how to grow butterfly ranunculus flowers to experience their beauty in person. These captivating blooms are like floating works of art, with their delicate petals unfurling each spring. In this comprehensive guide, we take you through the enchanting world of ranunculus. Taken from tissue culture cuttings, butterfly ranunculus corms are known for producing flowers with various colors and have one of the long-lasting vase lives of cut-flowers. Purchase some today to get the best selection of colors for your garden. Their romantic and airy aesthetic makes them a stunning addition to any garden or bouquet.

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DISCLOSURES and THOUGHTS:
If there are links, chances are they are affiliate links. You will never pay more for affiliate links, it simply means a company is willing to pay me for sharing about a product I’ve used and can get behind. Thanks for being here, reading this journal, and learning and growing along with me! ♥ 

This journal entry is a compilation of my thoughts that I choose to sincerely share with you. I am always open to new insights and would love to hear yours. When you add your comments, I ask that everyone is civil and respectful of all beliefs, even if they aren’t the same as yours.

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The unique features of Butterfly Ranunculus

-Shimmery, shiny, petals because of the waxy coating. This contributes to the long vase life.

-Sprays of flowers with buds that open even after harvested. Each STEM can have 7-12 buds and each CORM puts out several stems each year if they’re happy. Under optimum conditions, a single corm can produce 10 stems a year.

A little about Corms:
Many flowers are grown from corms - crocus, fritillaria, gladious, and freesia to name a few. Corms are similar to bulbs, except they are solid stem tissue. Bulbs are formed of layers of immature leaves with a basal plate comprised of compressed stem where the roots grow. Commonly grown bulbs include tulips, daffodils and hyacinth.

-Long Vase Life (14+ Days!) without any extra care on your part

-Reproduced with tissue culture, which takes less time to get new corms but is expensive. Another factor adding to the cost is their relatively new release into the marketplace. Like many other gorgeous flower varieties, including the drool-worthy Japanese Sweet Peas, they come from Japan.

Butterfly Ranunculus Compared to Other Ranunculus

Differences between butterfly and other ranunculus

There are so many varieties of ranunculus. Amandine, Clone, Gigi, Half Clone, La Belle, Super Green, Romance, and Novelty are some very great varieties to try. These are the varieties that flower farmers grow for florists. Along with these, there are a few other varieties you might see, like Aviv and Telecote. Telecote has a gorgeous rust, orange, red variety that florists die for, even though I don’t love growing this variety as much as the varieties first listed. I’ll refer to all of these as “standard” ranunculus, although trust me when I say that any ranunculus is anything but standard.

“Standard” Ranunculus are stuffed and full and gorgeous, easily with too many petals to count. Some varieties like the telecote that I’ve grown are closer to the butterfly ranunculus with a few layers of petals, so petal count does vary depending on the type you grow. As they age they show their center when all their petals have opened. In contrast, butterfly ranunculus have an open center from the beginning and only have one or two layers of petals. Ranunculus petals are also soft and come in a variety of beautiful colors, however they have no shimmer and shine like the butterfly ranunculus have.

The heads of the butterfly ranunculus aren’t as heavy (less petals) which results in a more airy look and feel. They tend to add movement to a handheld wedding bouquet or arrangement that isn’t available with a standard ranunculus and their heavier blooms. “Standard” ranunculus often have wires inserted into their stems to support them, especially when being placed up higher in arrangements or bouquets. This prevents the heavy head of the flower from flopping over from the weight of the flower head (or calcium deficiency from the soil they were grown in, but that’s a whole other story). Some of the newer varieties, particularly the Romance varieties, have solid stems so no wiring is required. I’m sure florists would pay extra for those in exchange for the time savings.

“Standard” Ranunculus have one main flower per stem with a few smaller buds that may open as the flower ages. Butterfly ranunculus have stems with five to seven flowers in a spray. This is similar to roses that have big main flowers (like “standard” ranunculus) and spray roses with lots of smaller flowers (like butterfly ranunculus).

Another difference is the cost. Butterfly ranuncs cost about $10 more per bunch than other ranuncs at the wholesaler. All the ranuncs are pricey, and worth every penny, but the butterfly ranunc cost the most and is still worth every penny. This likely has to do with the higher cost of corms for the farmer, which is due to the higher cost of the tissue culture production. Butterfly ranunculus corms are also significantly larger than the standard ranunculus corm. Just look at the picture below with the standard ranunculus on the left and the butterfly corms on the right.

Similarities of all ranunculus

• All ranunculus are stunning!
• They last well when cut, often lasting up to two weeks or more when freshly harvested.
• They are perfect for personals like boutonnieres or pocket squares, corsages, or any flower jewelry.
• They can have buds on the stems and they start to open as the main flower ages.
• They age beautifully with the color turning light and more complex as they age. Eventually, the petals shatter, leaving the evidence of their presence next to their vase.
• They all require the same (or at least pretty similar) growing conditions. The biggest difference is spacing suggestions. Butterfly ranunculus are bred for big plants to produce lots of stems and thus need more space.

Growing Conditions

Planting Time: Fall is best to support good root growth as long as temperatures can be kept above 25°F/-4°C. Often you won’t see any new green growth above ground but you will find that they take off quickly in the spring when temperatures warm up slightly due to their impressive root system growing all winter.

You can also plant them come spring when the soil is workable and has dried out from any winter water received. These corms, along with anemone, will easily rot so you need to be careful not to over-water them or plant them in areas with poor drainage.

Whether you plant them in fall or early spring, I’ve had much better success pre-sprouting the corms indoors before planting them out instead of planting them directly into the ground. (This is also the same with sweet peas.)

Spacing: 12 inches (30cm) between tubers (9 plants per square meter). Standard ranunculus is usually 9″ spacing.

Planting Depth: Top of corm should be covered with 2 inches of soil.

Sun: Like full sun, but are considered “short day” plants so require less hours of sun before they will bloom. In my little garden in Utah, they start blooming around May. This is the same time the anemone bloom. They can start blooming even earlier, as early as January outside and any time of year if you’re forcing them indoors with grow lights.

Temperature: These plants do well with the cooler weather and, in fact, stop producing flowers when it gets to 80°F/26-27°C or warmer. They can’t tolerate freezing temperatures below 25°F/-4°C. I utilize low tunnels, fall leaves/mulch, and snow to help insulate my flower beds during the winter if it’s getting too cold. Low tunnels can quickly heat up so if it’s a sunny day it is good to open the sides of the low tunnels to keep the ranunculus cool and happy.

Growing Time: They take about 8-12 weeks to grow, depending on your location and the weather conditions for the year. The professionals who provide me with my corms give an expected 10 weeks until the first flower appears.

Do be careful that no lights are on around the field/landscaping where you’ve planted your corms. This will cause the flowers to get confused and they won’t bloom properly. Did you know you can make sunflowers bloom earlier in the year by turning on lights at midnight to help them think they’re getting more sunlight than they really are? Plants are truly amazing things.

Soil: Ranunculus are heavy feeders. They do best when they have a spot with lots of compost and fertilizers (we prefer organic) to help them grow during the season. We often use fish emulsion to fertilize all our flowers with throughout the year and adding a couple of inches of compost into the top layer of soil when planting.

Pinching: Not required or beneficial.

Harvest: Use a clean (sterilized) knife or clippers. Harvest when two or three flowers are beginning to show their color and when one flower is open. This will allow the other flowers still in buds to continue to open once you’ve cut the stem and brought it inside. I like to bring a bucket (or glass jar/vase if I’m only cutting a few stems) of cool water (38°F/4°C) outside with me so I can place them directly into the water once cutting. If cutting for florists or wholesale accounts you can also use this time to put ten stems directly into a bunch and wrap with an elastic band.

My all-time favorite clippers (light pink) work great for this job. They're available in a few colors - orange is the most common and first ones I purchased. The perk if choosing the orange pair is it comes with wristband if you like to keep them close at all times. I even found pale purple and light yellow on Amazon once!

Support: Ranunculus, like all cut flowers, can use a little bit of support to help them grow straighter stems. Certain times of year can bring strong winds at times in my garden, so one layer of hortvana netting about halfway up the length of the stems can be quite useful to prevent damage with wind, rain, or any other inclement weather.

You can also use metal hog panels as an environmentally friendly way to keep the flowers upright. Simply step on a wooden 2×4 board that has been placed a foot into each long side (rather than all four sides, although all four sides can be done if you have wire cutters) of the hog panel and bend the hog panel up towards your legs. This will allow the metal panel to support itself and provide support at a 12″ height when rested on the ground. These are reusable for many years but do require significantly more storage space.

Truthfully, I don’t take the time to put up netting. I’d say I’m lazy, but I just have other priorities that fill my time like more pressing garden tasks, work inside the home or with loved ones. For the last three years I’ve had straight stems without the use of netting so I’ll continue to spend my time and efforts elsewhere. I invite you to save the time on this step too, especially if you don’t have any netting already.

Pre-Sprouting Ranunculus Corms

Pre-sprouting ranunculus (and anemone) is easy, takes half a day of mostly hands-off time, and helps improve germination and prevent rot with your expensive corms.

Supplies:

• Clean Bucket
• Ranunculus Corms
• Breathable mesh bag, anything you’ve got around that’s clean
  • Ideas: Cotton storage bags for produce storage, organza bags, burlap bags, red plastic mesh sleeves
    • I save the red plastic mesh from the Kroger reduced-price produce. If you use this, or anything with 1/8″ or larger holes, the corms little rootlets (not proper term, FYI) can get stuck in the holes. After being soaked, they are especially fragile. If a few pieces of the corm fall off, which always ends up happening to me, you can plant these but you get tiny plants with little to no flowers that year. In my experience, they’re not worth my time or garden space.
• Potting Soil
• Heavy Duty Trays
• Tags and/or Tape – if multiple varieties, you can mark where one variety starts in the soil (tags) or side of the tray (washi or tape)
• OPTIONAL: Fish tank pump or other water oxygenator. I don’t use this and I’ve always had good success.

Soaking and Pre-Sprouting:

Step 1: Go to a clean water source. The bathtub is my favorite place to soak my corms. Put your corms inside your clean, breathable bag and tie it up. Then put your bag of corms into your clean bucket. Any size bucket will do as long as the corms are completely covered in water and have room to double or triple in size.

Step 2: Turn on the water and keep it cool. Fill the bucket until the corms are covered. Then turn the faucet to a slow drip and leave it on to provide oxygen and prevent disease (notice all the times I used the word “clean” in Step 1?) while soaking.

If you have a water pump, now is the time to turn it on and put it in the water. You can then turn off the water drip as this will provide the corms with oxygen in place of the dripping water.

Step 3: Let the corms soak for 4 hours. I like to check on the corms every hour or so to check on water temperature (should still be relatively cold at ~77°F/25°C) and gently swish the bag of corms around in the water to create more oxygen.

Step 4: While your corms are soaking prepare your potting soil into the heavy-duty trays. Put a 2-inch layer of pre-moistened soil into your tray.

Do yourself a favor if you think you’ll garden for more than one year and purchase tray(s) that won’t break the second or third time you use it for starting seedlings! If you’ve ever purchased the black trays found at garden centers, you’ll find most are VERY flimsy when filled with soil. True Leaf Market is local (and ships nationwide) and is one of my favorite places to get everything from microgreen supplies to these long-lasting trays.

Make sure the trays you use have no holes so you don’t have to worry about water draining, unless you have trays for underneath to catch any water that comes out. For pre-sprouting, I use the trays without holes with no issues.

Prepare your potting soil by adding water to the soil and letting it sit until moist. When you pick up a handful of soil you want it to feel a little wet with a couple of drops of water that drip out when you squeeze. Similar to if you are preparing bedding for a worm bin. I like to mix the water easily in two ways. Either directly into the bag of potting soil (if I’ve got a small bag for a small amount of corms) or in any bucket I have nearby. I often use the buckets I keep for harvesting flowers nearby and wash the soil out well before harvesting flowers in them again.

Step 5: Place butterfly ranunculus immediately into the prepared trays. If you wait to plant them, even less than an hour, they begin to dry out resulting in sporadic germination. Plant them with the pointy ends sticking down. The top looks like a spider head to me, if that helps identify the tops and bottoms of these corms. Because butterfly ranunculus corms are much longer than the typical ranunculus you will likely find they don’t fit straight up and down in a typical tray. I place them at a slight angle, with the goal to keep them as upright as possible. Wiggle them around in the soil a couple of times while placing them so the soil can move into all the spaces in the corms. Once rehydrated, the corms need to stay moist to begin to grow roots. If air rather than soil touches the corm, it will dry out quickly and not germinate quickly and possibly not at all.

The pre-soaked corms can be placed quite close together. Place them an inch apart allowing room to grow. This will allow for less disturbance and effort in teasing the roots apart from each other when pulled out of the tray. This spacing also ensures all my trays fit under the grow lights and I have less to carry into the garden to transplant.

When you’ve placed all your ranunculus into tray(s), cover each tray with a light layer of soil. You’ll only have ~.5 inch left to the top of the tray which isn’t much but it’s enough to cover the ranunculus completely so they don’t dry out. Water lightly with a fine-holed watering can, allowing the soil to move around and cover any air pockets around the corm that might remain after wiggling and covering the ranunculus with soil. If the potting mix gets moved around and is no longer covering the ranunculus after this first water, or any watering, add more soil to the tray and water in lightly again.

I find the fine-hole watering can most useful because it keeps the soil in place well. I also like to use it when watering my soil blocks. My sweet husband gave me this Haws copper one for our 7th anniversary. If you follow the yearly gifts, and even if you don't, it's the perfect gift for someone who loves timeless, well-made gardening tools. Sadly, I have no affiliate link or discount code for this gift, but there are some on Amazon that are quite a bit less expensive that you can purchase and give me a little bonus with no extra cost on your end.

Step 6: Place the ranunculus under your grow lights. Check for water needs daily by sticking your finger in the soil to test for moisture or using a moisture meter. Heat mats are not typically needed because they grow well in cold conditions unless you’re growing in winter unprotected outdoors or in a very cold greenhouse. My butterfly ranunculus has sprouted well in my basement as it’s slightly cooler than the rest of my house. Garages and greenhouses are also good options for sprouting ranunculus as long as they stay between 40-60°F/4.5-15.5°C.

Step 7: Prepare your garden beds for planting the sprouted corms. Add a few inches of well-composted mulch into the top layer of your garden beds. It’s a great time to pull any weeds you see to prevent the weeds from taking all the nutrients and water from your ranunculus all winter.

In a week or two you’ll be seeing little green stems pop out of the soil and if you move the soil around in the trays you’ll see bright white roots everywhere. This is the time you want to move the ranunculus out into the garden for the winter (or early spring). When you transplant them to the garden, you’ll find you often cover all of the green growth to get the tops of the corms to the correct planting depth of 2″ for butterfly ranunculus.

Choosing the Best Location

Do you have a spot in your yard that gets morning sun and late afternoon shade? If so, this is a terrific place for your ranunculus. The ranunculus will get the sun they need with less of the afternoon and evening heat with the shade. You can reuse the frost cloth and turn it into shade cloth when temperatures start rising to keep the ranunculus happy and cool. Even a little bit of shade can keep your ranunculus growing a little longer into the season.

My favorite place to plant ranunculus is on the west side of my garden because it gets morning sun and late afternoon shade from the fence. To extend my ranunculus season, I plant my ranunculus in a few places in my yard. When I plant ranunculus in locations with a full day of sun it is typically a little warmer of a micro-climate and they start to wake up from their winter slumber and bloom sooner for me.

No matter where you plant them, you can be sure they’ll produce gorgeous blooms for you come spring.

Planting Butterfly Ranunculus in Pots

Butterfly Ranunculus can be grown indoors in pots or, for those growing large quantities they can be planted in bulb crates that you get from tulips and other bulk bulbs. When growing in pots there are a few things to focus on.

1- Use good potting soil. Find something with vermiculite or perlite to allow the soil to hold moisture and/or drain out without causing root rot. Most potting soils will also provide a slow-release fertilizer or some nutrients to start. Since ranunculus require lots of fertilizer, a soil with fertilizer provides you a good start.

2- Use a pot with adequate drainage. I love terra cotta for this reason. Terra cotta absorbs excess moisture, which you don’t get with cement, ceramic, metal, or plastic pots. In addition to (or in place of) terra cotta, look for pots with drainage holes. If overwatering does occur, the water can easily be drained off the tray shortly after watering.

3- Use a large enough pot. Butterfly ranunculus will grow decently tall if kept happy, so you’ll want to support all the upper growth with enough room for roots. A pot of at least 8-10 inches in depth and at least 6 inches in width will work decently for this large ranunculus. Traditional ranunculus don’t required the 12 inch spacing outdoors as as such can be potted in smaller pots (4-6 inch widths, same depth) or multiple corms can be added to larger pots.

Pot Recommendations:

I love a gorgeous, aged terra cotta pot. I've gotten several sizes and shapes of these pots (HomArt) and they are beautiful and real terra cotta. Be on the lookout for fake, made to look like terra cotta but actually cement, pots. If you like cement or have a place where you don't want water spots on the ground or table, then a beautiful cement pot will work great as well. You'll just have to be more vigilant about your watering routine. Because my favorites are often out of stock, these are a good substitute.

Check for water needs frequently. You’ll get on a somewhat regular schedule of watering daily or every couple of days when you figure out how your potting soil holds water and how much your plants drink. The best way to know when to water is by placing your finger in the soil. If the soil feels moist, don’t water. If the soil is somewhere between damp (slightly wet, but not dripping) and dry it is a good time to water. Don’t let the soil dry out as it will cause just as much harm as keeping the soil too water-logged.

Growing in pots allows for one less step when pre-sprouting. Rather than planting into a tray and then transplanting in a couple of weeks when growth is seen, you can plant directly into the moist potting soil leaving two inches of soil above the top of the corm. It’s much easier to plant in pots and control the conditions than trying to control the conditions in the ground.

Common pests and diseases of Butterfly Ranunculus Plants

You and I aren’t the only ones who love ranunculus. Aphids love to feed on ranunculus and are often found directly underneath the flower head and along the stem. These little green pests are the most common in my yard. While I’ve only seen green aphids on my ranunculus, I’ve seen many other colors on other plants in my yard like black and red.

Snails and slugs are also often found on the leaves of the ranunculus, especially after a rainstorm or an early morning walk through the garden.

So far I haven’t had any issues with larger pests like moles, voles, or other rodents eating my ranunculus corms or other spring bulbs. These can be an issue for many so if you have experienced these pests in the past then make a plan to protect your corms. You can bury metal panels with small holes to prevent rodents from munching on your desirable corms.

I’ve also experienced root rot with ranunculus. You’ll notice plants suddenly disappearing when you’ve been watering a little too much. Pre-sprouted plants are easier to water without killing, at least for me, so take the time to pre-sprout. I will say I’ve lost many a plant while pre-sprouting because it was too wet. The best teacher is experience so try this year, try next year, and in a few years you’ll know enough to get a great harvest.

Besides pests, you should also watch for diseases like powdery mildew, at least in Utah, which starts as small, white, powdery spots on the leaves. This can spread rapidly from one plant to another. Don’t leave the task of taking care of powdery mildew until tomorrow or next week. You’ll find your entire garden covered in no time. While I often don’t get this until the fall on my zinnias, cosmos, squash, etc, it never hurts to keep an eye out. To prevent this disease, ensure you have proper spacing so air can easily flow through the plants. Spacing for butterfly ranunculus is 12″, although the other varieties are spaced 8-9″ apart.

Do you have any other pests or diseases you’ve seen in your ranunculus patch?

Do Ranuculus come back next spring?

Ranunculus (and anemone) can come back the following year if they’re allowed to dry out after their season. However, many ranunculus bulbs, especially the bulbs propagated with tissue culture, are breeder-right protected and subject to royalties (extra fees to those growing these amazing corms, which is another reason for their higher cost). This means farmers can’t save the corms to reuse the following year.

I like to try new varieties and colors each year which means I can easily track what has come back each year. The first year I had great success with so many ranunculus coming back, so much so that I had a difficult time finding space for the spring planting of all the ranunculus I had planned for that garden bed. After a few years the ranunculus that come back are fewer, although I had a handful of my original ranunculus from three years ago come back this year.

I have found in the “regular” ranunculus corms that if I pull them out of the ground to save them for the following year, large numbers end up rotting when they are soaked and pre-sprouted. While there are fungicides and dips you can apply to your fall and/or spring-planted corms, this is not something I care to get into, both for the cost and to limit my use of and exposure to chemicals. I get decent germination when soaking then immediately getting into slightly moist soil. Because of the breeder-rights, I have not tried saving my butterfly ranunculus corms from last year.

To ensure you have beautiful ranunculus each year, and get a happy surprise if the corms pop up the following year, plan ahead by purchasing new corms so you’ll always have ranunculus come spring.

Enjoy their beauty

Growing and caring for these butterfly ranunculus may seem daunting, but with the right knowledge and care, you can enjoy their vibrant blooms year after year. From choosing the perfect location and soil to providing adequate sunlight and water, we shared the essential steps to ensure the health and longevity of your butterfly ranunculus plants. Get ready to immerse yourself in the enchanting world of ranunculus and discover your own secrets to growing and caring for these captivating blooms in your own yard. Soon you’ll be helping others grow butterfly ranunculus too!

Interested in more spring flowers? Try growing sweet peas this coming season too!

Learn more about our little garden plot in this journal entry.

Find out how to grow and use microgreens and sprouts. It’s an easy way to enhance any meal!