The Differences Between Flower Seeds and Bulbs
Beginner gardeners have a lot of hard choices to make, but one of the most confusing choices is choosing between flower seeds and bulbs. But, what if you don’t know the difference between the two and why you should choose one over the other? Never fear! Here are the differences between flower bulbs and seeds to help you get started on your flower garden.
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Seeds
Seeds are what contain the promise of a plant. They are the last phase of the plant life cycle, falling off of a dying plant to the ground with the hopes of replanting for the future. Seeds are essentially plant embryos that are encased in a hard shell that when planted, dissolves, allowing the plant embryo to begin to grow. You can find seeds for annual, perennial, and biennial flowers, and in general, growing flowers from seeds is a fairly simple process.
While you can’t usually just throw a bunch of seeds on the ground and expect flowers to grow, you are able to start seeds early indoors before transferring them outside when the weather gets warmer in the spring. This is nice because the flowers will grow sooner than if you wait until the last frost of the season to plant them outside in your garden.
Bulbs
Bulbs are perennial flowers that continually grow year after year. The bulb portion of a plant is buried beneath the soil and the leaves of the plant extend above the soil. The most basic explanation for a bulb is that it contains the entire life cycle of a plant, so when the leaves above ground die, the bulb can be harvested, saved, and replanted the next year to start a new cycle. Or, in many cases, you can just leave the bulb in the ground and allow nature to take its course.
It typically takes a bit more effort to grow flowers from bulbs because they are already active plants. Seeds don’t need any special care until they’re actually growing. This means you can harvest and save the seeds from your dying flowers to plant the following year or several years down the road. They just need to be stored in a dry, cool area so they don’t accidentally germinate.
Planting Seeds vs. Bulbs
You can actually plant both flower bulbs and seeds in the same garden, so it’s not a matter of choosing one over the other. But, if you’re just starting out with your first garden, it might be better to start with seeds. This is because there will be explicit directions on the seed packet on how far below the surface to plant them, how far apart to plant them, how much sun they need, and how much to water them. While flower bulbs will also have instructions, they aren’t always as easy to follow and by their very nature, they’re a bit more fragile than seeds.
Conclusion
A flower garden will flourish from either seeds or bulbs, so it’s mostly up to you which to use. You will have more choices with seeds, but perennial bulbs offer a convenient way to grow a colorful garden every year.
About the Author Laura Bennett
Hello, I’m Laura Bennett. I love nature especially when it comes to flowers and different kinds of plants. I started a very small garden behind my house and I named it Humid Garden. So, I created this blog to provide aspiring and inspiring thoughts about gardening for gardeners and anyone who has the intention of keeping a garden.
