Growing Flowers in the Desert – Ranunculus

After putting in some heart and soul, I have some tips on growing flowers in the desert. I have been hard at work learning this hobby over the last few years.

They are called ranunculus and I have to say I’m a pretty proud “flower mama” with these blooms. Each year I get a little more confident with how to grow them.

I posted a few photos on Instagram of my newest blooms and had so many people asking how I grew them so I promised a blog post.

There is something so incredibly rewarding about helping something grow out of the earth. Putting the hard work in and then getting so excited when you look at the fruits of your labors.

Maybe that’s an analogy to life, right? Sometimes we wonder if what we’re doing can make a difference. Patience through a difficult phase with a child, putting in the time to learn a new skill, the work it takes to plan a trip. But then you put in the work and one day you look back and think, MAN! That was worth it!

I felt this when we got home from spring break last week. I was giddy to “meet” all my new blooms I had been missing in my garden after putting in my work last fall.

And BAM! Yep, it was worth it:)

Tips for Planting Flowers in the Desert

Ok, so here are some tips for those asking how to plant flowers in the desert.

Specifically ranunculus, although I have a few anemones coming up as well.

Get a Flower Teacher

Ha! My biggest tip is to have a local friend who plants incredible beauty to show you the ropes. I have admired my friend Jamie’s garden for years (@bigelowbuilt) and keep picking her brain about how she does it. But two years ago I got serious: I was going to plant some of her incredible ranunculus. She taught me how and now I’m in my third year.

Prepare the Soil

The soil is so important. Dave and I created these “planting beds” when we built our house over ten years ago. I have used them on and off for vegetables but they sat dormant for a lot of years too.

So when I got serious about the flowers I used the instructions I’ve learned in various classes (and from Jamie). Correct me if I’m wrong, more experienced flower-growers, but these are the main tips I’ve learned through the years:

• Loosen the clay-type dirt if you’re in the desert. There is little drainage in our soil and the heat and dry conditions make it almost like cement when not tended to.
• Mix in soil or compost that will help the soil drain appropriately. I have used phosphorous additives before in my initial gardening days years ago. You can also use leaves and compost. But now I just get the soil from Lowes or Home Depot that is made for raised flower beds and it’s formulated to make that drainage possible. If you want to go super easy, you can get it delivered right to your door from Amazon. (There are a few varieties in that link.)

I think prepping the soil is the most important thing you can do. At first it seems like a thankless job, but then you see the before and after and it’s pretty satisfying!

Figure out Proper Watering

Of course the next most important thing is watering.

I started out watering by hand, but eventually we put in tube watering (those little black tubes you can see above). And last year we added some PVC piping to get our beds automatically watered.

That was heaven.

It took some extra work this last fall because we had some watering issues to work through before prepping the flower bed.

I cut through the main watering line with a shovel and one line was kinked and hadn’t watered well the year before, blah blah blah.

But then this:

Plant the Corms

After you prep the soil you plant the corms.

These are the ones I used this year:

And Jamie just let me know THESE NEW ONES are on a really good sale right now if you want to stock up for next year.

You have to soak them for a couple hours first to plump them up:

Then you plant them with the “legs” facing down, about 6-8 inches apart.

It seems to turn out I’m doing this part at night in the dark…

Watch them Grow

Water each day for 2-4 minutes (depending on how strong your water system is), and watch them grow.

The first little leaves will come up within a few weeks and that is a pretty exciting thing!

Plant other flowers between the blooms

As instructed by Jamie, I planted anemones in any spots where blooms weren’t coming up. Their seeds/corms look like this, and I just planted them in those empty spots.

I didn’t get a ton of them, they’re the one on the right below, but they’re so pretty. Maybe more are coming?

Timing for planting flowers in the desert

The best time to plant ranunculus in the desert is in October or November. I planted mine this year the day before Halloween. And they bloom in March.

These were the blooms before we left for spring break the first week of March:

And then it was SO fun for me to get home a couple weeks later to harvest so many beauties.

They take my breath away I love them so much!

There we go: a quick flower in the desert planting tutorial. From someone who is still learning!

I have lots to learn, but love that each year this little hobby gets a little less daunting!