	Mailing List	Issue 851

Growing Gardens

with Julia Hancock

Christmas Gardening Quiz

Test your garden knowledge with this holiday quiz.

1. Which plant has the common name bear's breeches?

a) The willow, Salix babylonica
b) The fern Humata tyermannii
c) The cornflower Centaurea cyanus
d) The perennial Acanthus mollis

2. In which state is the famous garden Heronswood?

a) ACT
b) NT
c) VIC
d) TAS

3. What coniferous tree was discovered in the Blue Mountains at the end of the 20th century?

a) Plum pine
b) Wollemi pine
c) Stone pine
d) Pinyon pine

4. For what is Malcolm Campbell best known?

a) As a plant breeder
b) As an ethnobotanist
c) As a TV presenter
d) As an author of gardening books

5. How are sweet peas propagated?

a) cutting
b) layering
c) division
d) seed

6. What does the technique thigmomorphogenesis describe?

a) stroking plants to promote good growth
b) micropropagation in an agar solution
c) gene splitting
d) preserving plant material in ice

7. What would you do with a trug?

a) use it to grub out roots
b) spray it with insecticide
c) eat it
d) fill it with flowers, fruit and vegetables

8. To which family does grevillea belong?

a) Proteaceae
b) Myrtaceae
c) Rubiaceae
d) Araceae

9. Who was a famous landscaper?

a) Gertrude Stein
b) Gertrude Jekyll
c) Gladys Greenbaum
d) Gloria Jackson

10. Which of the following is botanically unrelated?

a) eggplant
b) tomato
c) cucumber
d) chilli

11. Which of the following plants like growing in trees?

a) bromeliads
b) brachychitons
c) bugles
d) browallias

12. Which term describes the aeration of turf

a) scarifying
b) spiking
c) stratifying
d) strafing

13. What colour are the flowers of the rose 'Albertine'?

a) cherry red
b) champagne
c) salmon pink
d) lavender

14. Which of the following has an edible flower?

a) strawberry
b) daylily
c) daffodil
d) datura

15. Which of the following flowers changes colour according to soil pH?

a) ixora
b) buddleja
c) camellia
d) hydrangea

16. Which of the following is a major pest of azaleas?

a) white wax scale
b) aphids
c) lace bug
d) oedema

17. Which of the following trees is evergreen?

a) Japanese maple
b) Jamaican fiddlewood
c) English oak
d) Chinese elm

18. 'Kirin' is a cultivar of which plant?

a) Azalea
b) Gordonia
c) Michelia
d) Fuchsia

19. What are bracts?

a) soil-borne fungi
b) hooks for suspending hanging baskets
c) colourful leaves at the base of a flower
d) a type of secateurs

20. What has the Latin name Tacca chanteri?

a) bat plant
b) bog plant
c) bush basil
d) blue cohosh

Answers
1. d); 2. c); 3. b); 4. c); 5. d); 6. a); 7. d); 8. a); 9. b); 10. c); 11. a); 12. b); 13. c); 14. b); 15. d); 16. c); 17. b); 18. a); 19. c); 20. a).

Lismore Garden Club News

Heading off to the beach or visiting family over the Christmas break? Then check this checklist before you go.

If you're away for more than a few days, you'll need someone to water the potplants, feed the pets and collect the mail (alternatively, you can have the mail redirected for a small fee - see your local post office).
It's a good security idea to leave a table lamp on a timer to switch on at dark and switch off before midnight. Also get a neighbour to keep an eye out around the place and put out empty garbage bins to give the idea that you're at home.
You can save money on your electricity bill by turning off your hotwater at the meter box. Then ask a neighbour to turn it on the day before you arrive home.

Gardening Tip
Save your back and cut out the bucket brigade when using your washing water on the garden. Buy a 20 metre length of black poly pipe and insert it into the pump out hose of your washing machine. (Editor's note: Make sure it's on level ground only, or you could burn out your pump. And beware that the suction doesn't gravity draw water from your machine when it starts to fill again).

Happy gardening and a safe and blessed Christmas
Ron Burns

Use the form below to search through the Northern Rivers Echo Newspaper web site.

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