What’s on this week of Jul 8th

RANUNCULUS!!!!!

As a flower enthusiast, I have been interested in growing these ultra dreamy delights for a few years- and I have tried to grow them the past few years in our back yard in Edmonton with zero success. If you are an Edmontonian, you will know that the past few years have seen zero spring and just jumping into blistering heat in May and June. My early ranunc’ trials were successful in that I got a living plant with foliage, but one that basically went into dormancy due to the heat - I have since learned that ranunculus also prefer to bloom when they receive no more than 8 hours of sunlight (not particularly ideal up here where we are getting 14-16 hours a day of sunshine in late spring). I had no idea!

So: enter this year where I have tried my utmost to science this out for success- and while our very cool spring was less than ideal for some- this was excellent for my ranunculus which I started a bit on the late side in March. I transplanted two days before an April 30 snow storm, and mulched them with light wood chips (light coloured mulch will help keep your soil cool). As I did not have shade cloth I have been keeping my white frost cloth up over the little caterpillar structure to provide shade, with the sides up as much as possible to let the air circulate.

Yes! Those lumps under the snow and wood chips are my ranunc sprouts! Snow is actually a nice insulator and ranuculus plants and foliage can take a bit of cold.

They started really slow- the first buds in late June seemed to take what seemed like forever to mature to a harvestable state, but they have been going for a few weeks and they are just amazing. I think the temps this week will likely put them into dormancy, but so far the average soil temp is just below 20C… I am really curious to see what happens. I am planning a fall succession (which I got started on Jul 2), so hoping to have more of these gorgeous gals in a few months.