How to solve Bloom puzzles: a deduction guide
Start with tiles that have only one possible owner
To solve Bloom puzzles, scan corners, count each seed's legal reach, and find empty tiles that only one seed can fill. Grow the forced petals, subtract their lengths from the seed's number, then repeat. These deductions give you a reason for each move.
This guide covers Bloom: Flower Logic Puzzle, the cozy puzzle with numbered seeds and straight petals. Its rules are the basis of every technique below:
- A seed grows petals up, down, left, or right. Petals stay straight.
- Its number equals the total length of all its petals, counted in tiles.
- Every open tile must be filled, and petals cannot cross or overlap.
- Each puzzle has exactly one solution, so guessing is unnecessary.
A seed numbered 5 could use three tiles upward and two rightward, for example. It cannot use five in each direction. Drag from a seed to grow, tap a petal to trim, or tap a seed to clear it.
Use corners to narrow the search
An open corner can only be reached along its row or its column. No diagonal seed can fill it, because petals cannot turn.
Trace both lines inward. Check which seeds can reach the corner without crossing a blocker or exceeding their number after accounting for other forced petals. If only one seed qualifies, that seed owns the corner and every intervening tile.
For example, suppose a corner lies three tiles left of one seed. The only seed in its column cannot reach it legally. The row seed must grow at least three tiles left. If it is numbered 4, just one tile remains to allocate elsewhere or extend that petal.
A corner is a place to inspect, not an automatic move. If two seeds can still reach it, leave the choice open and check another constraint.
Count a seed's reach before growing it
For each direction, count the maximum legal petal length given the board edges, obstacles, and petals you have already proved. A numbered seed's available total also limits its reach.
Suppose a seed numbered 6 has room for at most two tiles up, one down, three left, and none right. Those limits total six. It must use every available tile in those directions.
You can also force part of a petal when there is spare room overall. Suppose a seed numbered 7 can reach at most two tiles up, one down, four left, and one right. Outside the left direction, it can fit only four tiles. Therefore, at least three tiles must go left. Grow those three; the fourth is still undecided.
This is a useful calculation whenever a large number sits near an edge. Subtract the capacity of all other directions from the number to find a direction's minimum required length.
Count only proven placements as blockers. An unproven petal you drew earlier cannot justify another deduction.
Work backward from hard-to-reach tiles
Inspect empty tiles as well as seeds. A tile's possible owners must share its row or column, have a clear straight route, and have enough length available to reach it.
Imagine an empty tile four spaces right of seed A and two spaces below seed B. Seed A is numbered 3, so it cannot reach that tile. If B is the only remaining candidate, B must extend two tiles downward. Both the target and the intervening tile are forced.
After drawing that petal, revisit nearby seeds. Its occupied tiles may shorten another seed's reach, which can force growth elsewhere. The deduction often continues beyond the first placement.
Be careful with remaining totals: length assigned to a forced petal is already committed. A seed with one tile left cannot start a new three-tile petal.
Apply one extra tactic for each garden twist
Window Box uses the base rules. For later gardens, adjust your reach counts and candidate checks to include the new restriction.
Cottage Path fences: cut off the line at the boundary
A fence blocks movement between two tiles. Stop a seed's reach at that boundary, even if open tiles continue beyond it. Then check the tile just across the fence: removing the fenced route may leave only one other seed able to fill it.
Rockery stones: inspect the tile beyond the stone
Stones block petals and stay empty. A seed cannot reach through a stone to an open tile beyond it. Inspect that open tile from its perpendicular direction and its other side. If only one seed can reach, grow that seed's petal through the required distance.
Orchard branches: eliminate an entire line
Branch seeds grow in one straight line only. Compare their number with the legal space along each possible line. If the horizontal line has too little room to hold the required length, eliminate it and work vertically. Do not combine horizontal and vertical capacity when checking a branch seed.
Bee Meadow bees: reserve the endpoint length
A petal must end exactly on a bee's tile. Once you establish which seed supplies that endpoint, count the distance and reserve that length. A bee three tiles away requires a three-tile petal in that direction. It cannot be satisfied by extending the same petal past the bee.
Glasshouse cuttings: check both seeds before extending
Paired seeds must grow the exact same shape. Compare a proposed extension with the matching extension at its partner. If a blocker makes one impossible, eliminate that extension for both. Conversely, a forced part of one seed's shape forces the matching part at the other.
Wild Meadow wind: remove the forbidden direction first
No petal grows against the wind direction. Exclude that direction before calculating reach or listing a tile's possible owners. For example, a seed below a tile cannot fill it if upward growth is forbidden. Recheck tiles whose apparent second candidate depended on that direction.
Moon Garden moon seeds: solve from coverage
A moon seed's number is hidden, so it may grow any length. Use tile ownership instead of a numerical total: find tiles only that seed can reach and grow toward them. Keep checking numbered neighbors, whose length requirements can force which tiles remain for the moon seed.
Repeat a short solving loop
- Inspect corners and tiles beside blockers for a single possible owner.
- Recalculate reach for seeds affected by each forced petal.
- Grow minimum required lengths and complete seeds whose total is settled.
- Check the garden's special rule, then scan newly restricted tiles.
If you stall, explain your last move in one sentence. “Only this seed can reach the corner” is a deduction. “This looks balanced” needs another check. For more on that distinction, see logic puzzles without guessing.
Undo and Start over are always free and unlimited. Hints cost petals. Learn the deductions first, then replay to improve your stars: using a hint and going past par time each cost one star. A clear reason for each petal gives you a solving method you can reuse on the next board.
