Ranunculus asiaticus Butterfly Graces® - Persian Buttercup

Butterfly™ Graces® brings a lightness and simple grace to the florist's ranunculus. Its creamy white, pearly flowers, numerous on each stem, seem to float above its foliage. The cut stems also offer excellent vase life. It is a valuable variety for spring cut flower arrangements, white borders and containers placed near the house to enjoy its charm.

This variety belongs to the Ranunculaceae family. Its ancestor is Ranunculus asiaticus, the Asian ranunculus, garden ranunculus or florist's ranunculus. It is a perennial, tuberous botanical species with fleshy claws. Its natural range covers the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. It is found from the southern Aegean islands to western and southwestern Iran, in open, sunny, often stony environments, which are subject to a dry period in summer.

Butterfly™ Graces® belongs to the Butterfly™ series, resulting from the breeding work of the Japanese breeder Aya Engei. This series was developed for cut flowers: the plants produce branched stems, with several buds per stem, and single to semi-double or barely double flowers, covered by a thin waxy film that makes them shine and improves their vase life. Graces® produces cream to white flowers, lighter than those of Ariadne®, and buds tinged with lime green. The plant forms an upright clump 45 to 50 cm high and 20 to 30 cm wide in one season. In cultivation for cut flowers, stems can reach 55 to 70 cm. The stems are thin, sturdy, well-branched, and each bears 5 to 7 buds. The 6 to 8 cm wide corollas are open, supple, and slightly crinkled. The dominant colour is a creamy white to pale ivory, with a soft yellow-green heart and even greener buds, giving the whole a real freshness. Flowering occurs from April to June, sometimes earlier in mild regions. The bright green, deeply cut foliage forms a low clump from which the leafy flowering stems rise. The vegetation disappears after flowering when the plant goes dormant. The underground tubers don't like excess water and frost: they perish below -5/-6°C. Grow florist's ranunculus like a gladiolus, lifting the tubers before the first frosts.

Plant the Butterfly™ Graces® variety in borders and beds or in a container on the terrace. This spring flower deserves a prime location, to be studied up close. Always plant it in light, fertile, and very well-drained soil. It can be combined with the double daffodil ‘Obdam’, Viridiflora tulip ‘Spring Green’, peony ‘Immaculée’, China aster 'King Size White' and Allium ‘Mount Everest’. Gathered in the garden and then in a vase, these flowers compose a large and magnificent white bouquet.

The Asian ranunculus has been one of the most cultivated florist's plants for centuries. Its production is ancient in the Mediterranean basin and in Anjou, where the tubers have long been the subject of genuine horticultural expertise.