Are flower bulbs the same as flower seeds?

Are flower bulbs the same as flower seeds?


About the same as onions are from peas. One is a bulb and the other a flower seed.





The bulb is just a fattened leaf base growing on a bit of chunky stem. From this stem comes the flower bud too. When the flowers bloom, they can set seed too. You can also plant these seeds and get new plants from them. When the new plants are big enough, they send their food into the bases of their leaves to form another bulb again.





Other flower seeds make plants -- big ones like giant trees, small ones like grass seeds, and so many in between. Some of them will grow into plants that will eventually make bulbs too. Like onions and lilies and tulips.





But don't forget that bulbs started life from a flower seed too.

Are flower bulbs the same as flower seeds?
No, they are very different. Many flowers with bulbs also produce seed, which is hard to grow, therfore most flowering bulbs are grown from bulbs. The bulb is sort of an adaptation of roots and stems, as far as I know. The seeds are produced in the ovary of the flower.
Reply:They sort of are, but sort of not. Both bulbs and seeds produce flowers, but, some flowers grow from seeds, other flowers grow from bulbs.





Flowers like daffodils and tulips grow from bulbs. If you plant bulbs, you'll want to dig the bulbs up in the fall (after they have flowered) every few years, separate them, and replant them. They reproduce by making little baby bulbs off the main one (kind of like cloves of garlic), and you can separate them, and plant many more. In fact, after a few years, you should do this, because I think that bulbs get less productive the "clumpier" they get. I find them the most satisfying, because most of them come up quickly, and change every day. Also, a lot of them are spring flowers, so they mark the beginning of the garden.





Other flowers reproduce using seeds, which generally come from the center of the flower itself. There are three types of flower seeds; perennial, annual, and biennial.





I don't know a lot about biennials. They don't flower until the second year, and have always seemed like too much trouble to me.





Annuals are seeds that only produce flowers over one season. They tend to bloom for a longer period. They are often sold in flats (more expensive) at garden shops while already in bloom.





There is a subset of annuals which are called self seeding annuals. This means that the seeds will drop and repropagate themselves. I've had luck with sunflowers coming back year after year, in the weirdest places, as birds pick them off and drop them.





Perennials come back every year, and are really the cheapest way to go. One of my favorites is the black eyed susan.





Other flowers grow from corms, rhizomes and tubers. Wikipedia has a great section on plant reproduction.
Reply:Bulbs are, essentially, a permanent root - they will re-grow every year from the same plant. Seeds germinate, sprout, mature, then die. If that plant produces seeds AND if those seeds drop to the ground AND those seeds germinate next season, you'll get a replacement plant.
Reply:No they are not the same.
Reply:Bulbs are nice because they come back year after year and even multiply. Seeds die out after one season.