Ranunculus asiaticus Romance Quimper® - Persian buttercup

Ranunculus Romance™ Quimper® is a fine quality florist's ranunculus, selected for its large, fully double flowers in a light lemon yellow and for its particularly sturdy stems. This variety flowers in spring. Its fresh, bright colour, sophisticated appearance, opulent bloom and excellent vase life make it an excellent cut flower, as well as a good seasonal plant for the garden.

This variety belongs to the Ranunculaceae family. The botanical species, Ranunculus asiaticus, is known by the common names florist's ranunculus, garden ranunculus, oriental ranunculus or Asian ranunculus. It is a tuberous perennial or, more precisely, a geophyte with tuberised roots. It grows in the eastern Mediterranean basin and into western Asia, from the southern Aegean islands to western and south-western Iran. It is found in regions with mild, wet winters and dry summers, often on stony or scrubby ground.

The cultivar Romance™ Quimper® was bred by the Japanese breeder Aya Engei and belongs to the Romance™ series created for cut flowers. This series is characterised by early flowering, very large corollas, long, solid, non-hollow stems and excellent vase life. The plant forms a small clump of deeply divided, bright, slightly glossy green leaves, which can resemble very finely divided flat parsley leaves. The foliage appears early, in late winter or early spring, then dies back and disappears after flowering, when the plant enters summer dormancy. In open ground, this Quimper® variety reaches 40 to 50 cm in height and 20 to 25 cm in width within a few weeks, more in specialised cut-flower cultivation. Its fully double, large flowers are filled with numerous fine, tissue-paper-like petals, and can measure 10 to 15 cm in diameter under good conditions. Their lemon-yellow colour, washed with soft green in the centre as they open, remains soft and fresh. It will flower from March to May, depending on planting time and the mildness of the winter. By lifting the tubers in autumn before frost, you can grow this plant like a gladiolus.

This Romance™ Quimper® variety can be grown in pots or in the garden, in a well-designed border or spring bed. Its radiant flowering combines particularly well with Triumph tulip ‘Pays Bas’, white and luminous, viridiflora tulip ‘Spring Green’, flamed with green, fosteriana tulip ‘Juan’, orange, and Triumph tulip ‘Purple Lady’, whose purplish hue highlights the delicacy of its flowers.