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Floriferous is another offering from Pencil First games (also responsible for Herbaceous, The Whatnot Cabinet and Sunset over water) and was originally funded on Kickstarter in 2021.
Strolling Through The Garden
Floriferous is a light, card drafting game, where you build your hand of flowers throughout the play in order to score the most joy/points at game end. It is a wonderfully calm, pretty offering that falls into the relaxing gaming category.
There are various ways to score points. Collecting arrangement cards and creating that arrangement, collecting desire cards, fulfilling those requirements, and completing bounty cards as quickly as possible.
A Pocket Full Of Posies
Floriferous is divided into 3 rounds, represented as 3 days. Each day, the players take turns (based on where they are in the starting order) to choose flowers to add to their hands. Each flower is one of 5 types (Lily, Daisy, Mum, Poppy and Tulip). The flower is also one of 5 colours (Orange, pink, white, yellow and purple). Some flower cards also have an insect on them (Butterfly, Ladybird, Moth, Beetle and Bee).
There are also arrangement cards available throughout the garden. These each have 3 requirements you need in order to create that arrangement. For example, you may need a Lily, any purple flower and a butterfly. If by game end you have these in your hand, you will score full points for that arrangement card.
On Your Turn
You either select one of these cards to add to your Floriferous hand/bouquet, or you could take the desired card available. Desire cards offer bonus points at the end of the game. They include things like 3 points for each butterfly you have, 2 points for each red flower, or increasing points for each different flower you have collected.
There is one final type of card that you may find whilst you amble through the garden, a sculpture card. These are simply scored at the game end as 5 points to the player with the most sculpture cards, 3 to 2nd place, 1 to 3rd place.
Bounty Cards
There are also bounty cards that are available for all players to complete. When you complete one you place one of your tokens on the card marking which round you completed it in. The sooner you complete these, the more points they are worth, but they are still open to everyone to complete. This is a nice touch because instead of a race to complete a card (which we often see in games) everyone can complete them at their own pace or indeed detour to smell a few more Tulips if they prefer!
Having so many options which all score similar amounts of points means that whichever path you choose, you are sure to find joy!
How Does Your Garden Grow?
At the end of each round, any remaining cards are cleared and the ‘garden’ is re-laid for the next day.
Once all rounds are complete, players add up their scores to determine the winner. It is also at this point that the coveted ‘cup of tea’ card is awarded to the player who collected the most stones whilst wandering through the blooms.
Better Than A Real Bouquet
We all thoroughly enjoyed Floriferous. It is very quick to set up and learn, and fast to play. It’s a great warm-up game for a game night, or fantastic if you just have a short time to fill. I can see myself taking this on holiday and enjoying it whilst taking a rest in the shade.
The calm flow, pleasing artwork and pastel colour scheme all play a part in achieving a relaxing game. One player noted that they thought it's perfect to play when they want to de-stress. It gives you something to focus on, but no one felt it was a highly competitive game where they lamented the loss of much-needed cards. We were all perfectly happy building our beautiful hands and seeing where we end up. If you happen to win the ‘cup of tea bonus’ so much the better!
I think Floriferous would be an excellent alternative to a real bunch of flowers for Mother’s Day. I would much rather give the gift of a never-ending flower bouquet! And more importantly, some quality time spent playing together.
Other Blooms
I have recently been enjoying the calming gaming experience, gone are the days of solitaire to pass the time when we have games with beautiful elements like this one.
Another enjoyable game of a similar style is Sunset over water, the artwork on the cards is even better than Floriferous. If you enjoy Floriferous but are looking to step it up a little but have a similar experience, I would suggest The Whatnot Cabinet, a personal favourite of mine.
Editors note: This post was originally published on 15/3/2023. Updated on 15/3/2023 to improve the information available.
