January Passionate about plants

Paul provides the answers to his plant quiz.

Passionate About Plants

This month I have decided to do something a little different, something that tests your gardening knowledge, with the chance to win a £5.00 HTA National Garden Gift Voucher, redeemable at either Quaymount or any good garden centre.

1. What do the letters RHS stand for? Royal Horticultural Society

2. What colour flowers does the shrub known as the winter flowering 'Forsythia' have? White

3. Name the dessert apple that I recommended for the north of England, in one of my articles as the best substitute for Cox Orange Pippin? Sunset

4. Camillia sinensis can be used to make which drink? Tea

5. Ladybirds are good at eating some of our garden pests - Name one? Greenfly

6. Plants that shed their leaves in winter are called? Deciduous

7. Eucalyptus are native to which continent? Australia

8. Aconitum napellus, was used by Cadfeal as a herbal rub but unfortunately it is a deadly poison if taken internally. What is its common name? Monkshood

9. What do the letters HTA stand for? Horticultural Trades Association

10. What is the botanical name for Witch Hazel? Hamamelis vernalis

11. The Orchid lavender flowered Catherine Woodberry is a 1960's variety of what herbaceous plant? Day lily

12. When the cells inside a seed swell and start growing it is called ...........? Germination

13 My grandfather grew Nicotiana tabacum on his allotment during the Second World War. What did he use it for? To smoke (in his pipe?)

14. Compost is made as J.I. numbers 1, 2 and 3, what does J.I. stand for? John Innes

15. Natural or induced genetic change, often exhibited as a variegated shoot or flower from the parent plant is known as a? sport or mutation

16. Quercus rubra is the North American species of which native English tree? Red Oak

17. Cannabis is an example of a hardy annual, what does hardy annual mean? A plant which completes its full cycle in one growing season

18. Aluminium sulphate in the soil affects the colour of what genus of plant? Hydrangea

19. Foxglove is a poisonous plant including the smoke from burning its foliage. What is the name of this poison which is used in medicine? Digitalis

20. Crocus sativus provides us with a colouring used in the kitchen - which is it? Saffron

The winner was Val Barrington of Boughton Surgery

Good Luck!

Paul Markwell,

Quaymount Nurseries,

Wereham,

01366 500691.

Paul Markwell