Everyone loves a flower garden and most people would like to have one filled with color and fragrance. Many plants are available for using in a garden, and most of these come from either bulbs or seeds.
Most plants that come from seeds are either annuals or biennials. Annuals grow directly from seeds and grow, bloom and die in the course of one season. They also produce their own seeds. Many lovely flowers fall into this category, including most wildflowers, zinnias, marigolds, asters, daisies and petunias.
One nice option for using flowers from seeds is buying a roll of turf with the seeds already pre-planted. All a gardener needs to do is to unroll the turf in a suitable location and water it. These rolls are available at most garden centers. Biennials last for two years without replanting.
Other plants with seeds are edible, such as tomatoes, squash, cucumber, celery, berries, watermelon and cantaloupe. Packets of seeds for these vegetables can be found in the spring in grocery stores, home centers or from seed catalogs. Flower seeds are available as well.
Plants from bulbs are a whole other proposition. Probably the most famous plants growing from bulbs are tulips. However, daffodils, hyacinth, gladiolus and even garlic also spring from bulbs. Gardeners plant bulbs in the fall of the year and they remain dormant in the soil until spring. When the weather warms up, the bulbs send up green leaves, and eventually flower. The flowers remain for a couple of weeks or so, then they die back, and the leaves follow. These plants then lie dormant until the next spring, when they bloom again.
The main advantage with plant bulbs is that they can be moved to different places in the garden, depending on the gardener’s preferences. All the gardener has to do is to dig the bulbs up in the fall and replant them in the desired location. Plant bulbs are also available anywhere seeds and other plants are sold.
Planting bulbs and seeds is a wonderful family activity. Children can see the more or less immediate results of their labors with seeds in a pot, and can appreciate the virtues of patience when planting bulbs in autumn. This is a great experience for them to see where plants come from and how they grow.