Ranunculus lyallii This is a magnificent plant, but to see it at its best you should go to Mount Cook in New Zealand, as it isn't easy in cultivation. It can be a metre or more high, with thick, round, glossy leaves, and loose heads of ten or so bowl-shaped, pure white flowers, each made up of 10 to 15 overlapping petals. So, if Mount Cook is not on your itinerary, what should you do? Keep it in as cool a place as possible, where there is moisture rather than shade - and keep your pet slugs and snails away from it.