Cheapest Flower Bulb Seeds

Cheap Individual Bulbs

• Bulbs are sold by size within the same type of flowers. In other words, a big daffodil bulb will cost more than a smaller one because the bigger one is older and will produce bigger flowers, and in some cases more than one flower per bulb.

  For example, an average size amaryllis bulb, those found for sale during the holidays, produces one stalk of three to four flowers. A large size bulb produces two stalks with five or more flowers on each stalk. If you want the cheapest bulbs buy the smaller sizes.

Cheap Variety

• Common varieties of bulbs are the cheapest. New hybrids are more expensive. Unusual colors are more expensive than run-of-the-mill colors -- which are still beautiful. Choose yellow daffodils, purple Iris and white lilies as opposed to pink daffodils, black Iris and red lilies for the best prices. Newer varieties are more expensive than standards.

Baby Bulbs

• Bulbs, such as daffodils and crocus, reproduce themselves freely. Start with 20 bulbs and in a few years your daffodils could number in the hundreds. To move the baby bulbs, or bulblets, to start a new garden, wait until the foliage has withered; this signifies the bulb has gone dormant. Gently dig around the bulbs and remove the smaller bulbs from the mother bulb by breaking them off. Either save the bulbs and replant them in the fall or replant them immediately.

Flower Bulb Seeds

• After the bulb flowers, allow the blooms to become fertilized and set seed. When the flowers are fertilized the blossom will whither and die soon afterward. There will be a round seed pod at the base of the withered flower, which contains the seeds. Let it mature until it's ripe. In most cases it will turn brown and break open a bit at the seams when the seeds are ready. Collect the seeds in paper bags. Label the bags since seeds tend to look alike.

Propagate from Seed

• Narcissus, fritillaria and crocus are easily propagated from seed according to the Scottish Rock Garden Club. The method may be used for other bulbs as well. The trick is planting the seeds when they would fall to the ground in their natural climate and habitat. That means adjusting the time somewhat if your climate differs.

  The seeds may also be started inside in their own little pots and then transplanted outside when spring arrives for spring blooming flowers or early summer for summer blooming flowers, such as oriental and Asiatic lilies. Bulbs planted from seeds take from three to seven years to bloom.