Homes

How good a gardener are you?

Think you've got green fingers? Take our gardening quiz to see how much you know.

Question 1

What is a lemon-scented geranium’s true name?

A: It’s a pelargonium, just like most commonly grown ‘geraniums’, from brilliant red-flowered ones to downy-leafed peppermint or strongly scented ‘rose geraniums’. True geraniums are different plants.

Question 2

Which of these common garden berries are highly poisonous: castor oil plant, holly, privet, cotoneaster, daphne, lily of the valley, sweet pea?

A: All of them.

Question 3

What is a spring onion?

A: A green-leafed perennial onion with only a thin white bulb. Clumps will grow bigger every year.

Question 4

What is the world’s most often purchased rose?

A: Iceberg. Ever-blooming and (almost) unkillable.

Question 5

Caffeine kills snails. True or false?

A: True. Try spraying seedlings with strong coffee and see what happens to the snails.

Question 6

Lawns are best mown as short as you can, or high?

A: High. This will keep them neat but healthy. Low mowing can encourage weeds.

Question 7

When should a climbing rose be pruned?

A: After flowering, either once a year if they only bloom in spring, or trimmed back after each flush of flowers.

Question 8

Should potted ferns be fed a little or a lot to keep them gloriously bushy?

A: A little, at half-strength or even less. Strong fertiliser kills new fronds and the fern will slowly die if no new fronds grow up to replace the old ones.

Related stories