2 Photos
Is this majestic 80 year old white pine a bleeder?
This funky plant was once grown for its flowers but now mostly for its foliage.
Last summer I challenged my readers with a Hampton Gardener garden quiz. It was very popular and resulted in lots of mail. So, it’s back, and you have a long holiday weekend to work on it.
Most of the questions have been covered in this column in the past year or two. Don’t try to Google the answers until you’ve really given them a good try and don’t email me for the answers before you get them in next week’s paper.
There’s only one correct answer to each question. Or two, or three, as the case may be. Some are trick questions, so don’t be tricked. And for those who want a real challenge, there’s a math question at the end that every accomplished gardener should be able to figure out.
Do well and you should have a great garden. Sorry, no cash prizes.
Q: Heirloom garden vegetables are just old varieties that are being reintroduced and there is no taste or quality differences from modern hybrid vegetable varieties.
Choice: True or false.
Q: The vegetable gardening season on the East End is approximately how long (frost free)?
Choices: A) 120 days B) 190+ days C) 150 days D) 173 days.
Q: A synoptic garden is one in which ... ?
Choices: A) Synoptic orius is the only plant B) A garden for contemplation C) A garden where plants are alphabetically organized D) a garden of organized synopses.
Q: Which vegetable garden plants benefit most from bee pollination?
Choices: Corn, tomatoes, sweet peas, carrots or cucurbits.
Q: Suffolk County has legislation in place that is intended to control the use of which plant nutrient?
Choices: Phosphorus, calcium, molybdenum or nitrogen.
Q: Russian sage (
perovskia atriplicifolia
) is a garden perennial with a nearly woody stem. Each spring it should be cut to the ground to encourage new growth.
Choice: True or false.
Q:
Poa annua
, or annual bluegrass, is an important grass plant whose seed should be included in all lawn seed mixtures on Long Island.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Damage from summer drought on trees and shrubs is always clearly visible within a month or two of the end of the drought.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Which of the following is an invasive pest that all gardeners should be on the lookout for?
Choice: Emerald ash borer, giant hogweed or Asian long-horned beetle.
Q: Once you find a repellent that works on deer in your garden, you should stick with it since you know it works.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Which of the following trees are referred to as “bleeders” and should not be pruned in late winter?
Choice: Pine, maple, birch, beech, or elm.
Q: Corn gluten is an effective organic herbicide that will control growing weeds as well as keeping weed seeds from germinating.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Deadheading the flowers from shrubs and garden plants is unnecessary and just a remnant of old-fashioned garden practices.
Choice: True or false.
Q: All types of clematis regrow from the previous year’s vine wood and should not be pruned until right after flowering finishes.
Choice: True or false.
Q: A commercial activator is necessary to begin and maintain the biological action that makes composting work.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Lawns should be watered after 8 p.m. and before 4 a.m. to reduce evaporation and increase penetration down to the soil.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Ferns can easily be propagated by either dividing the crown or from collecting and germinating the seeds.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Lawns need to be treated annually for the control of white grubs and crabgrass.
Choice: True or false.
Q: You are most likely to pick up a tick from ... ?
Choice: Tall grasses and weeds, your lawn, your vegetable garden, your cat, or white-footed mice.
Q: Since we primarily have sandy soil out here, pesticides get tightly bound to the sand particles and don’t enter the water table.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Biostimulants are natural and organic materials that can be used in the place of fertilizers.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Garden flowers for use as cuts can be cut any time of the day as long as they are immediately put into cold water.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Once called “funkia,” and also known as the “plantain lily,” this perennial is primarily grown for its foliage.
Choice:
funkia plantagina, lilium plantanum
, hosta,
folagina nottia
Q: Moles primarily feed on roots, tubers and bulbs.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Which of the following garden insects cannot be seen with the naked eye?
Choice: Aphid, two-spotted spider mite, emerald ash borer or black vine weevil.
Q: Forsythia should be pruned in late summer in order to set new buds for spring flowers.
Choice: True or false.
Q: The color of hydrangea flowers can be changed by adding aluminum sulphate to the soil.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Biennials are plants that flower for two years and then die.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Privet is a disease- and insect-free shrub that’s a ubiquitous Hampton hedge plant.
Choice: True or false.
Q: Neem oil is a natural product derived from the neem tree. Is it used as a:
Choice: Plant fungicide or insecticide?
Q: There are no native cacti on the South Fork of Long Island.
Choice: True or false.
Bonus Round: You have a lawn that covers a modest 10,000 square feet. You had a soil test done and the results show that you should apply 3 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet during the gardening season. But, when you mow the grass, you use a mulching mower and return the mulched grass blades back to the soil. This reduces your need for nitrogen by 30 percent. You buy an organic fertilizer with an 18-0-5 analysis in 50-pound bags.
Q: How many bags do you need in one gardening season to feed your lawn?
Keep growing.
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