The wholesale bedding plants sector is comprised of breeder/producer companies who supply F1 hybrid seeds or vegetatively propagated varieties for the professional grower market. These seeds are sold to professional wholesale plant growers via distribution seed companies, or to professional plug growers who sell plugs or rooted cuttings to the professional growers. In both cases, the growers size them up and sell them to nurseries, home improvement centers and ‘big box’ retailers. Homeowners and commercial landscaping companies buy these live plants and transplant them directly into the garden. Bedding plants are strictly ornamental, are generally intended to remain for only one season and are installed as live plants rather than seed.

On the other hand, in the wholesale wildflower seed market, seed is sold in bulk quantities to end users who plant the seed themselves on a variety of projects. Plus, most wildflower seed is planted as a mixture of seeds rather than as one single variety. The user aims to mimic what occurs in natural areas under the right conditions: an ever-changing display of species flowering over one or more seasons. The typical user of wildflower seed aims to cover a large area with seed (from a few hundred square feet to several acres or more).

In the retail market, wildflower seed is sometimes sold in packets, but is more frequently sold in larger containers (‘shaker’ cans, boxes, bags) that hold more seed than traditional packets. Many of these retail wildflower seed products contain an inert carrier such as vermiculite to help the consumer to spread the seed mixture more evenly over the area to be planted.

There is another section of the flower seed sector that does not deal with F1 hybrids, but sells open-pollinated garden seeds. This is the packet seed market. Customers in this market typically buy packets of seed at nurseries, home improvement centers and ‘big box’ retailers, or directly from mail order seed companies. This seed is planted directly into the home garden.