Pat, I would wait to transplant them until after they're done blooming, when they're actively growing new roots. Otherwise, they'll sacrifice blooms during acclimation. If you like, though, and you have plenty of them, you could try a couple transplants now and save some for later.

Ranuncs are so beautiful! I've never had any luck growing them, but they're definitely worth my attempts. :)

Brenda

Hi Brenda, I decided to wait on the iris transplants as they are all in bloom! But I have 2 large pots of a water plant, I think it's Umbrella something. way overgrown, so I took those out, separated and cleaned them up. Took 4 roots of them and put in the small basket with just a thin layer of sand and anchored them with small pebbles. Will see if they do anything with this method. I'm venturing into the unknown again, so will see what happens. Pat

It's probably umbrella palm (Cyperus), Pat, and it is very forgiving of dividing and pruning. You did good! :)

I have mine right in my pond, with no soil or pot, and it's just coming back now after the freezing temps we had this year.

Brenda

I'm with Brenda, I'd wait until the Iris finish blooming too. I've got a few I'm going to move also that came up in odd place because I couldn't put them where I wanted to at the time.

I let grandgirl pick out one Ranaculus, it is really pretty, kind of sorry I didn't encourage her to buy more. Maybe next spring.

I'd like to see pics of your pond plants, I'm fascinated by what you can grow in there.

I did bite the bullet after waffling and bought 4 pink and one orange gerberas and "sprinkled" them through the large rose bed. Mostly to cheer me up, I'm fighting off a black spot and spider mite take over on the roses, so far it's winning and I'm loosing and I'm discouraged.

{{gwi:495290}}
Leslie, this pix is about 3 yrs. old. About the only thing in it is the Umbrella plant & a water lily. I use to have fish, till the neighbors cats decided to have a fish dinner. I haven't replaced them as this would happen again & I just don't want the aggrevation. The pond I got at Home Depot, it's small, about 3 x 5 ft, I would love to have a larger one with a water fall, but then I'd also like a 10 carat diamond! Anyhow I think it was Brenda that gave me this website on water plants, so I'm trying this method of not using soil in the pond.
http://www.bonniesplants.com/ It's pretty interesting! Pat

Oh, Oh, forgot Leslie, you can still plant Ranaculus now before the hot weather sets in. And if the weather toasts them, just leave them in the garden and they will come back next year. My roses are blooming like crazy, but this on again, off again weather has them confused and some of the bloom edges turn black. It's time for me to sprinkle some corn meal around to discourage this.

You ladies are SUCH a wealth of information! I've always wanted to try Ranunculus, but their performance in the heat always discouraged me. I might try again, and not give up so soon. :)

Ooo, I LOVE Gerberas! After losing my 2 favorites to gophers, I gave up, but....they're so tempting!

Thanks so much for the corn meal info, Pat! I think my mom is having that same issue with hers, so I'll let her know about your fix.

My pond isn't much bigger around than yours, but it's fairly deep (I think 3 1/2 or 4 ft.). Hubby was so excited when he built it, he just kept on digging. LOL He was kind enough to build me a raised creek, too, but...the liner edging never did get done correctly. I've planted a lot of stuff to try to cover it, but it still looks terrible. It's been well over 4 years, so I guess it's up to me. *sigh*

I only have mosquito fish in mine. If neighbor cats can find and catch them, I shall make up awards for them all. LOL

Brenda

Leslie and Brenda....before you go out buying Renaculus, I must tell you this.....They don't do well in the heat. But if you plant them in the fall, with our weather, you'll have blooms before summer, probably early spring. I'm not an expert on this, but I really think they need to be in the ground for some cold weather therapy. When I get my bulbs from supplier I'll post their growing instructions just to be sure. And also our weather conditions are sometimes different than yours. We're expecting 90 deg. tomarrow according to our local reports.

Pat, your pond looks wonderful! I love the plants they look really healthy and love water lillies:) We want one that size to make a waterfall out of and maybe I can grow some plants in there like that too:) That's the next thing we're saving our money for. I have the space saved for it, just can't afford to get it yet.

I did notice yesterday that all the blooms dropped off the one Renaculus grandgirl had in her garden. I wonder if it'd do better in the mini garden with more shade? But, you're also saying it's the heat too. It'll only get hotter here, we hit 117 last year. But it did bloom well for over a month while we had it and it sure was pretty. I would like more and if they were in earlier it would bloom longer than that. Yes, please do that and remind me when you get your bulbs and I'll get some then too. Thanks, Pat.

Brenda, you can still do Gerberas, just line the hole, bottom and sides with broken pieces of clay pots, worked for me in the mtns, I didn't have a problem with the underground critters planting that way. Or at least try out a couple as a test:)

That's terrible about your pond, but I think my husband has the same problem as yours. He means really well, it's just things never seem to come out quite the way they're supposed to be. I wish I had the strength and know how to do things my self like that. To get very deep in the clay I have to dig and water and dig again. I can bounce all I like on a shovel but in the clay it's not going anywhere! I just don't have the weight to drive it in or the strength. I have to have DH's help and sometimes it's just not quite what I want...

We supposed to be up towards of 90 too Pat, isn't this fun, what happened to the 70's??? We always seem to just skip right by other than a couple of days here in the valley. It's the 60's then bam it's the 80's!

Thanks for the info, Pat! When I tried them before, I was thinking they'd died during the heat, not gone dormant. It's nice to know that they might return during cooler weather.

Leslie, I've been experimenting with plastic pond baskets in the ground to protect my plantings. They're really cheap online (compared to the regular pre-made metal plant baskets), and I can't even count how many I've used already. So far, so good. If it works out, I'll return to my beloved Gerberas. :D

Ack, it hit 86 here yesterday, and I wilted! LOL It's currently 59F outside, 74F inside at 5:30 in the morning, with all windows open. Hey, I hear a chance of rain is on the way, though! At least cooler temps would be SO nice.

Brenda