Garden to Vase – Ranunculus

Learn how to grow and arrange with ranunculus, the floral stars of spring.

The luxurious Persian Buttercup aka Ranunculus is a must for the April/May cutting garden. They are our best selling and most abundant spring flowering bulb. Closer in appearance to peonies than buttercups their multi-layered silky petals have the advantage of coming in a much wider range of colours from soft pastel shades to rich,  jewel coloured tones.

The class will take you through how to grow them both indoors and out for long stems and prolific blooms, the best varieties for cutting and how to plan for successional planting for weeks of flowers. Rachel will advise on stage of harvest for the optium vase life and where to source the best bulbs (claws).

You will have the opportunity to select and pick all the elements for your arrangements including accompanying focal flowers like flamboyant tulips and panda eyed anemones, supporting and accent flowers including scented narcissi, hellebores and fritillaries. In our orchard, field and hedges we will also be harvesting twiggy sprays of blossom and newly emerged foliage to use as framework elements.

Rachel will demonstrate how she works with ranunculus in her floral designs and what she arranges with them to balance and enhance their form and colour. She is a firm believer in the vase being equally as important as the florals and now with her own pottery studio on the farm she has handmade some deep footed bowls to complement these spring beauties.

After a two course home cooked lunch made with fresh produce from the kitchen garden you will spend the afternoon arranging in the beautifully restored coaching barn next to our flower fields. Once you have completed your bowl arrangement Rachel will show you how to make a garden-gathered ranunculus bouquet

Go home with your arrangement, bouquet, lots of growing and arranging tips and a pack of ranunculus claws to plant in the autumn.

Date: Sunday 27th April

Cost: £250