Two Boots Farm

4226 Maple Grove Rd. Hampstead USA

(443) 507-8428

A family run farm and floral design studio in Hampstead, Maryland. We grow a wide variety of cut flowers and produce. We also have over 100 cultivated pawpaw fruit trees. We use ecologically sustainable practices so that future generations can continue to grow in healthy soil.

Ranunculus Rules

April 24, 2025  /  Elisa Lane

Greetings!

We’re basking in the sunshine and enjoying the warm days this week. It is, perhaps, a little too warm for this time of year, but after a long winter it’s safe to say that we’re all enjoying it for the time being. There’s much to do on the farm, but our primary focus this week is finishing the process of potting up all of the seedlings for our Spring plant sales. It takes quite a while to pot up over six thousand seedlings! Our seedling sale deliveries go out the door next week, and then we’ve got our biggest market weekend of the year- Flower Mart!

La belle chocolate ranunculus is our earliest bloomer, and such a rich shade of red.

Spotlight on Ranunculus

We started harvesting the season’s first ranunculus this week, and it’s gorgeous! The harvest is beginning quite a bit later this year than it normally does, which we attribute to several factors. Rather than pre-sprouting all of our ranunculus this year, we soaked and planted some of it directly, which we probably should have done a few weeks earlier to keep it on the same schedule as if we’d pre-sprouted it. Additionally, we installed fans in all of the high tunnels growing ranunculus, which helps with air circulation in the tunnels, which helps prevent fungal diseases. The fans keep it a bit cooler in the tunnels, and that, combined with the cold winter and cool spring, may have contributed to a later crop than usual.

A handful of tecolote ranunculus.

Despite the late crop, our ranunculus looks absolutely beautiful. We always struggle with disease pressure over the winter, and the fans did a great job at mitigating that disease pressure this year. I’m looking forward to easy harvests and long vase life.

We’re growing some new-to-us ranunculus varieties this year, too. Last year we tried out Tecolote Cafe, and loved it, so we’re growing several more of the Tecolote Series this year. They’ve got long, sturdy stems and stunning open blooms with a lot of gorgeous color variations.

Ranunculus prefers cool temperatures, which means the season is short in Maryland. To extend the season as much as possible, we cover our high tunnels with shade cloth, which keeps it a bit cooler inside. We hope to keep cutting ranunculus through early June, and the crop will likely peak right around Mother’s Day or shortly thereafter. While it’s in season, we often end up absolutely swimming in ranunuculus, and it isn’t unusual for our cooler shelves to house hundreds of stems at a time. Last year we tracked how many ranunculus we harvested, and our total stem count came to 10,355! It can be a challenging crop to get right, but when you do, it’s worth it to grow.

This week finally brought us the year’s first substantial harvests. Pictured here is butterfly ranunculus, ranunculus, and hellebores.

Sunday Market

Last week’s market bouquets.

We’re back at the Baltimore Farmers’ Market starts this Sunday, April 20th, from 7:00-12:00.

Thanks for all of your support last week! We’ve been thrilled to have a fantastic start to our market season, and look forward to seeing you for many weeks to come.

This week we’re planning to bring bouquets, butterfly ranunculus and regular ranunculus bunches, the last of the year’s heirloom narcissus, pussy willow, poppy bunches, and herb seedlings.

Thanks for reading, and, as always, we appreciate your steadfast support.


Wishing you all the best,


Amelia, Elisa, and the Two Boots Crew

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