Buds and Blooms Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Aim of the Game
• Components (2 player game)
• Flower Cards
  • Blooms
  • Buds
• Flower Bed Cards
• Tool Cards
• Set Up
  • Preparing the Flower Beds
  • Preparing the Decks
  • Starting the Game
• On Each Turn
  • Playing a Flower Card
  • Playing a Tool Card
  • Discarding to the Compost Pile
  • Growing a Flower
• Game End
• Scoring
  • Example Scoring
• Clarifications
• Variants
  • Single Deck Variant
  • No Take-That Variant
• Solitaire Game
  • Showtime!

The Aim of the Game

To play cards to your flower beds to increase the height of your flowers and attract bees and butterflies. The taller the flower, and the more attractive it is to insects, the more points it will be awarded. The gardener whose flowers score the highest at the end of the game wins.

Components (2 player game)

42 Flower cards (36 Blooms and 6 Buds), 6 Tool cards, 6 Flower Bed cards.

Flower Cards

Flower cards are used to grow flowers. There are two types of Flower card.

Blooms

Blooms show a flower head in one of 3 colours and a number between 1 and 6. They have 2 stages of growth (as indicated by the marks on the card).

Some Bloom cards also show a Bee. A flower will score extra points if more than one bee is attracted to it.

Each Bloom card shows its name, a weather icon on the card back (sun or rain), its stem, its number and its growth stages (first stage and second stage).

Buds

Buds are wild cards. They can represent either of 2 colours and any number (1 to 6).

They have 3 stages of growth (as indicated by the marks on the card).

All Bud cards show a Butterfly. A flower will score extra points if a butterfly of the same colour is attracted to it.

Flower Bed Cards

Flowers are grown out of Flower Bed cards.

Cards are double sided with each side showing 2 flower beds (one for each player as they view them). 3 Flower Bed cards are used in a game.

Each flower bed has its own specific rules for playing Flower cards to it.

Some flower beds have a worm. Worms ensure that the rules are balanced across the 3 cards.

Flower beds with rocks have stricter rules.

Rosettes are only used in the 1-player game and are therefore ignored in a 2-player game.

Tool Cards

A Tool card allows the player to perform a special action, as described on the card. There are 3 different Tool cards:

• Flower Power: Grow one flower by 2 stages OR two flowers by 1 stage each.
• Make the Cut: Take the top card from your opponent's flower (cannot be a bud) and play it OR insert a card from your hand between 2 cards* of a flower (or below the bottom card). *So that it overlaps the card below by the same number of stages as the one above it did.
• Dig Down: Look through the compost pile, take a card and add it to your hand. Look at the top 3 cards of your draw deck and add one to your hand. Place the other 2 cards face down at the bottom of the draw deck.

Set Up

Preparing the Flower Beds

Take the 6 Flower Bed cards and shuffle, rotating some and flipping some over as you do so.

Deal 3 of the cards, lengthways, in a horizontal row between the 2 players. The other 3 cards will not be used so put them away.

If a player's flower beds do not contain a worm then rotate the middle card by 180 degrees so that each player has at least one flower bed with a worm.

The more rocks in the flower beds, the more difficult it becomes to grow the flower. For a slightly easier game, only use the card faces without rocks (so flip any cards that show rocks).

Preparing the Decks

Each player takes a deck of 21 Flower cards (one deck has a flower icon on the back of each card).

• Shuffles their deck and sets aside the top 9 cards face down.
• Inserts the 3 Tool cards into the deck and shuffles again.
• Places 3 of the 9 cards face down at the bottom of the deck and the remaining 6 cards face down on top of the deck.

Starting the Game

Each player draws 4 cards from their deck to form their hand. These cards are kept hidden from their opponent.

The player who last watered flowers goes first.

On Each Turn

1. Play a card or discard a card.
2. Draw another card (if available) to bring your hand back up to 4 cards.

Playing a Flower Card

Start growing a flower by placing a Flower card, face up, above one of your flower beds. Its stem should join the stem on the flower bed.

If a flower is already growing you may play a Flower card on top of it. Overlap the top card of the flower so that only its first stage of growth (showing its colour and number) remains visible.

In this way the flower grows taller (towards your opponent opposite). Note that the type and colour of the bloom may change as the flower grows.

The card must be played according to the rules of that particular flower bed. Each flower bed has its own rules, shown on the label in the soil.

The rules determine the colour of the Flower cards that can be played and the sequence of their numbers.

If the colours shown on the label are side by side, then the Flower card can be any of the colours shown. If the colours are shown above one another then the cards played must alternate between the two colours shown.

Depending on the rule, the cards must be played so that their numbers are either ascending (low to high) or descending (high to low).

You cannot play a card with the same number as the card that you're overlapping.

The printed rules illustrate each flower bed label with an example:

Alternate Colours. Example rules: the cards played must alternate between red and yellow (starting with either colour). The cards' numbers must go from high to low. So, for example, the sequence of cards could be 6 5 4 3 2 1. You do not, however, need to start with a 6 or place every card possible in the sequence. The sequence could be 4 3 1 or simply 6 2 (although, in these cases, your flower would not have grown as tall).

Odd. Example rules: the cards played can be any colour. They must be odd numbers and go from low to high and then (although not obligatory) back to low. So the ideal sequence of cards would be 1, 3, 5, 3, 1. You do not, however, need to start with a 1 or place every card possible in the sequence. You could play 3, 5, 1 or 1, 5, 3 or simply 1, 5.

Consecutive Numbers. Example rules: the cards played can be either of 2 colours, for example blue and yellow. The cards' numbers must be consecutive and go from low to high. So the sequence could be 1 2 3 4 5 6. You do not, however, need to start with a 1. You could place 2 3 4 or 3 4 5 6. As long as a maximum of 2 colours are played.

Playing a Tool Card

Alternatively, you may play a Tool card, face up, to the Tool shed. Follow the instructions on the card.

• Playing 'Flower Power' allows you to grow your flowers further (see 'Growing a Flower' below).
• Playing 'Dig Down' allows you to take a card from the Compost pile OR take one of the top 3 cards in your draw deck (placing the other 2 face down at the bottom of the draw deck).
• Playing 'Make a Cut' allows you take the top card from one of your opponent's flowers and immediately play it OR play a card from your hand between 2 cards of a flower so that only its first growth stage is visible and it overlaps the card below by the amount that the card above it did. It may also be inserted below the bottom card of a flower.

Flower cards played using a Tool card must follow the flower bed's rules.

Discarding to the Compost Pile

If you are unable to play a card, or prefer not to, then you must discard a card (Flower or Tool) face down onto the Compost pile.

Discarding a card gives you the chance to grow a flower further as well as attracting more bees or a butterfly.

The back of each card shows a weather icon (sun or rain).

If the icon of the card you are discarding is different to the icon on the top card of your draw deck, then you have the perfect weather (sun and rain) to grow a flower by one stage (see 'Growing a Flower' below). If the icons are the same then nothing happens.

Growing a Flower

Slide one of your Flower cards upwards to reveal the additional growth stage of the card beneath it.

When you slide the card upwards, cards that are on top of it move with it.

If a Bloom card's second growth stage, or a Bud card's third growth stage, is already showing, then no more of that card can be revealed.

You must state which card you intend to slide before moving it. You cannot slide a card upwards to check for a bee and then slide it back down. So it's useful to remember which overlapped cards have bees on them.

If your draw deck is empty and you have both a sun icon and a rain icon in your hand, you may discard both cards to grow a flower by one stage.

Example: the 3 card is slid up, together with the 4 card on top of it, to reveal the second growth stage of the ? wild (Bud) card below it.

Game End

The game ends when both draw decks are empty and neither player can play, or discard, any more cards.

Players then score their flowers.

Scoring

Players score each of their three flowers as follows:

• Each leaf on the flower scores 1 point.
• 2 bees on the flower score 1 point. 3 bees score 2 points. 4 bees score 4 points. (A single bee does not score.)
• A butterfly of the same colour as the flower scores 3 points. (A butterfly of a different colour does not score.)
• The best scoring flower of each Flower Bed card scores a bonus 2 points. (If both players' flowers have the same score then no bonus is awarded.)
• A flower with a Bud at the top has not bloomed and does not score.

Players add up the scores for their three flowers.

The player with the highest total score wins and is declared Best in Show!

If both players' total scores are the same then the player with the highest scoring individual flower wins.

Example Scoring

Player 1:

• Flower A: 9 points (6 leaves, butterfly)
• Flower B: 10 points (7 leaves, 2 bees + bonus 2 points)
• Flower C: 9 points (7 leaves, 3 bees)
• Total: 28 points

Player 2:

• Flower A: 12 points (6 leaves, 2 bees, butterfly + bonus 2 points)
• Flower B: 6 points (6 leaves)
• Flower C: 9 points (6 leaves, butterfly)
• Total: 27 points

Player 1 wins.

Clarifications

A Bud card represents any whole number from 1 to 6. You cannot play a card with the same number as the card that you're overlapping. So if the Bud is played to represent a 6, for example, you cannot then play a 6 on top of it.

After playing 'Dig Down' and taking a card from the Compost or the draw deck, your turn ends.

'Flower Power' can also grow a flower 2 stages by using 2 separate cards (1 stage each).

Variants

Single Deck Variant

For a little more tension and uncertainty, mix the two decks (including the Tool cards) together and play using a single, common, draw deck (do not 'prepare' the deck at the start).

In this variant, a player is only allowed to use one of each type of Tool card. So if they draw the second one they can only use it as a discard.

No Take-That Variant

If you prefer not to have a 'take-that' element in your games, then ignore the first action of the 'Make the Cut' card.

Solitaire Game

The 1 player game follows the rules of the 2 player game. You play with a single deck of 24 cards and try to beat a rival gardener's score.

When preparing the flower beds don't forget to make sure that at least one, and no more than two, of your beds contain a worm.

The number of Flower Bed cards that have rocks determines who you will be up against and the venue. In order of increasing difficulty, they are:

• Rusty Spade at the Village Show (none of the Flower Bed cards have rocks)
• Doug Borders at the Town Show (1 Flower Bed card has rocks)
• Rose Thorne at the County Show (2 Flower Bed cards have rocks)
• Ivor Greenfinger at the National Show (all 3 Flower Bed cards have rocks)

The Rosettes on the 3 flower beds show the points your rival has scored for each of their 3 flowers. You must try to beat the total of these 3 scores.

Note that, in a 1 player game, bonus points are not given for the best scoring flower of each Flower Bed card.

You can play a one-off game against a random rival by simply using the 3 Flower Bed cards as dealt.

Or you can select the rival/difficulty by flipping the Flower Bed cards so that the required number of cards have rocks.

Showtime!

For the ultimate challenge, play all of the venues in order of difficulty, starting with the Village Show. You will need to beat your rival there before progressing to the next venue, and so on.

In each game flip the Flower Bed cards as necessary to ensure the correct number of cards have rocks.

If you make it through to the National Flower Show and defeat Ivor Greenfinger you win the game and are awarded the prestigious Best in Show!