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Garden Trivia
Dig into 150 garden trivia questions covering famous gardens, legendary plant hunters, backyard vegetables, pests and pollinators, and garden history. From the tulip bulbs that cost more than a house and the 2,000-year-old seed that sprouted to Monet's Giverny and the world-record pumpkin named Michael Jordan, discover the surprising stories growing in every garden.
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Questions (150 of 150)
๐ดhard
Which fruit may be the earliest domesticated crop, with 11,400-year-old cultivated remains found near Jericho?
๐ขeasy
Garden gnomes first became popular in the 19th century in which country, where they were crafted from clay?
๐ขeasy
In the 1630s, single bulbs of which flower sold in the Netherlands for more than the price of a house?
๐ขeasy
The common name of which flower comes from the Old English 'day's eye,' because it opens at dawn?
๐ดhard
Who designed the gardens of Versailles for Louis XIV?
๐ดhard
Roughly how many victory gardens did Americans plant in 1943?
๐ขeasy
What is the method of growing plants in mineral-nutrient water solutions instead of soil?
๐ดhard
Plant hunter Ernest 'Chinese' Wilson suffered a lifelong 'lily limp' after a 1910 landslide while collecting which flower?
๐ขeasy
The titan arum, nicknamed the 'corpse flower,' is famous for what when it blooms?
๐กmedium
Which musical features Audrey II, a bloodthirsty plant that demands, 'Feed me!'?
๐ขeasy
Which world-famous flower show is held every May on the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London?
๐กmedium
What does Peter Rabbit lose in Mr. McGregor's garden that ends up dressing a scarecrow?
๐ดhard
Which element in the soil must be available for hydrangea flowers to turn blue?
๐ดhard
The Victorian craze called 'pteridomania' was an obsession with collecting which plants?
๐ขeasy
Which London botanic garden, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, holds one of the world's largest collections of living plants?
๐ขeasy
Monarch butterfly caterpillars feed exclusively on which plant, making it a must for butterfly gardens?
๐กmedium
In the 1979 film 'Being There,' Peter Sellers plays a sheltered gardener whose first name is what?
๐ขeasy
Which carnivorous plant snaps its hinged leaves shut when an insect touches its trigger hairs twice?
๐กmedium
Cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts were all bred from which single plant species?
๐กmedium
Which crop was domesticated in Mexico from a wild grass called teosinte about 9,000 years ago?
๐ขeasy
What do the British call the vegetable Americans know as zucchini?
๐ขeasy
Which garden fruit carries around 200 seeds on its outside?
๐ขeasy
Which style of Japanese garden uses carefully raked gravel to represent flowing water?
๐ดhard
Which heirloom tomato did West Virginia's 'Radiator Charlie' breed, paying off his $6,000 house loan by selling seedlings?
๐กmedium
Who designed the iconic plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament in 1957?
๐ขeasy
Gardeners love ladybugs because a single one can eat up to 5,000 of which sap-sucking pests in its lifetime?
๐ขeasy
Which fragrant purple herb's name is often traced to the Latin 'lavare,' meaning 'to wash'?
๐ขeasy
Complete the nursery rhyme: 'Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells and...'?
๐ขeasy
Which small handheld gardening shovel shares its name with the flat tool bricklayers use to spread mortar?
๐กmedium
Despite its size, a banana 'tree' is technically what kind of plant?
๐ดhard
Which Dutch designer created the naturalistic planting scheme for New York City's High Line?
๐ดhard
In what year was the Chelsea Flower Show first held at its current Royal Hospital Chelsea site?
๐กmedium
The poinsettia is named after Joel Poinsett, who was the first U.S. minister to which country?
๐ขeasy
Which Japanese art form cultivates miniature trees in shallow containers?
๐กmedium
Gardeners use Epsom salt on tomatoes and roses mainly to supply which nutrient?
๐กmedium
Which garden ornament was banned from the Chelsea Flower Show until a one-year exception for its 2013 centenary?
๐ขeasy
What is the name for the dark, crumbly material gardeners make by letting kitchen scraps and leaves decompose?
๐กmedium
Canada's famous Butchart Gardens in British Columbia were built inside what?
๐ดhard
Which Scottish botanist smuggled tea plants out of China to India in 1848 by disguising himself as a Chinese merchant?
๐ขeasy
Pasadena's famous New Year's Day parade, with floats covered entirely in plant material, is named for which flower?
๐กmedium
Roughly how long does a home-grown pineapple plant take to produce a single fruit?
๐ดhard
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 by John Wedgwood, son of which famous potter?
๐กmedium
Which potato disease, caused by Phytophthora infestans, triggered the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s?
๐ดhard
The spirals of seeds in a sunflower head typically follow numbers from which famous mathematical sequence?
๐ขeasy
Which one-wheeled garden workhorse was used in China nearly 2,000 years ago?
๐ดhard
Which architectural theorist created Scotland's 'Garden of Cosmic Speculation,' inspired by black holes and DNA?
๐กmedium
Johnny Appleseed's apples were mostly too sour to eat. What were they chiefly used to make?
๐กmedium
Which Augustinian friar discovered the basic laws of heredity by breeding about 28,000 pea plants in his monastery garden?
๐ขeasy
Which French palace's vast formal gardens, created for Louis XIV, cover about 2,000 acres including the park?
๐ดhard
Which Brazilian landscape architect redesigned Rio's Copacabana promenade in 1970 with its sweeping mosaic patterns?
๐กmedium
What is the term for young sunflowers turning their heads to follow the sun across the sky?
๐กmedium
Plant breeder Luther Burbank developed which potato, now a top choice for McDonald's French fries?
๐กmedium
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which safeguards over a million seed samples, is in which country?
๐ดhard
The world's oldest academic botanical garden still in its original location, founded in 1545, is in which Italian city?
๐กmedium
Who led the BBC's hit garden-makeover show 'Ground Force,' which famously overhauled Nelson Mandela's garden in 1999?
๐ขeasy
Which slimy garden pest scrapes leaves with a tongue-like radula covered in thousands of tiny teeth?
๐ดhard
Which red-and-white flamed tulip was the most coveted bulb of Dutch tulip mania?
๐ขeasy
Which giant vegetable holds a world record of over 2,700 pounds for a single specimen grown by a Minnesota teacher?
๐ขeasy
In 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,' the card-gardeners hurriedly paint the Queen's white roses what color?
๐ขeasy
Before Dutch growers popularized orange ones, cultivated carrots were most commonly what color?
๐ดhard
The Guinness record for the tallest sunflower, set in Germany in 2014, is roughly how tall?
๐กmedium
What was the real name of the frontier nurseryman known as Johnny Appleseed?
๐กmedium
At their 1944 peak, U.S. victory gardens produced roughly what share of the nation's fresh vegetables?
๐ดhard
Legend says Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens to ease the homesickness of which wife?
๐ขeasy
Which First Lady planted the first major vegetable garden on the White House South Lawn since WWII in 2009?
๐ดhard
Which Kyoto temple has a famous rock garden of 15 stones arranged so all 15 are never visible at once from the veranda?
๐กmedium
Who co-designed New York's Central Park with Calvert Vaux?
๐กmedium
On a fertilizer label, N-P-K stands for nitrogen, phosphorus, and what?
๐ดhard
Travis Gienger's 2,749-pound world-record pumpkin in 2023 was nicknamed after which athlete?
๐ดhard
Joseph Paxton designed the Crystal Palace after studying the ribbed leaves of which plant?
๐กmedium
Which bulbous vegetable's name is German for 'cabbage turnip'?
๐กmedium
After pollination, the flower stalks of peanut plants do something unusual. What?
๐กmedium
Rhubarb leaves are toxic because they contain high levels of which compound?
๐ดhard
Levens Hall, home to what is claimed as the world's oldest topiary garden (laid out in the 1690s), is in which English county?
๐กmedium
Which BBC gardening program first aired in 1968 and is famously presented by Monty Don?
๐ดhard
A 2,000-year-old seed from Masada was germinated in 2005, producing a Judean date palm nicknamed what?
๐ดhard
Cornwall's Eden Project, with its giant geodesic biomes, was built inside what kind of former site?
๐ขeasy
Gardeners plant seed pieces of which vegetable, making sure each chunk has at least one 'eye'?
๐ขeasy
Which easy-to-grow garden herb is the key ingredient in classic Genovese pesto?
๐ดhard
Dutch tulip mania famously collapsed in February of what year?
๐ดhard
Kenroku-en, considered one of Japan's Three Great Gardens, is in which city?
๐ดhard
The prized flame-streaked petals of tulip mania's most expensive bulbs were actually caused by what?
๐กmedium
Silkworms feed almost exclusively on the leaves of which tree?
๐กmedium
What is the main ingredient buried under a 'hugelkultur' raised bed?
๐ขeasy
Native Americans' 'Three Sisters' planting method pairs corn and beans with which third crop?
๐ดhard
Louis XIV was so jealous of which estate's garden, designed for finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, that he had Fouquet arrested?
๐ดhard
The apple tree said to have inspired Isaac Newton, still alive at Woolsthorpe Manor, is what variety?
๐ดhard
The Humble Administrator's Garden, a UNESCO-listed classical Chinese garden, is in which city?
๐กmedium
Which expensive spice comes from the stigmas of a crocus, needing about 75,000 blossoms per pound?
๐กmedium
What is the technique of training fruit trees to grow flat against a wall or trellis?
๐กmedium
Which Paris garden stretches between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde?
๐กmedium
Which influential garden designer created about 400 gardens, many with architect Edwin Lutyens?
๐ขeasy
In Frances Hodgson Burnett's 'The Secret Garden,' which orphaned girl discovers the hidden garden?
๐ขeasy
Which tiny garden visitor can hover, fly backward, and is especially drawn to red tubular flowers?
๐ดhard
The English word 'paradise' comes from an Old Persian word meaning what?
๐กmedium
Which U.S. president grew about 330 varieties of 99 vegetable and herb species in his Monticello garden?
๐ดhard
What is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world?
๐ขeasy
Which Babylonian garden, possibly never proven to have existed, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?
๐ขeasy
Hydrangeas bloom blue instead of pink when grown in what kind of soil?
๐กmedium
Roughly how rare is a four-leaf clover among ordinary three-leaf clovers?
๐ดhard
The Wardian case, invented around 1829 and used to ship live plants worldwide, was an early form of what?
๐กmedium
How do honeybees tell hive-mates the direction and distance of good garden flowers?
๐ขeasy
Which Impressionist painted about 250 water lily paintings inspired by his own garden at Giverny?
๐ดhard
The Honeycrisp apple, released in 1991, was developed at which university?
๐กmedium
In 'The Secret Garden,' how long had the garden been locked when Mary finds its key?
๐ดhard
To fill his water lily pond at Giverny, Claude Monet diverted water from a branch of which river?
๐ขeasy
Earthworms have no lungs. How do they breathe?
๐กmedium
The Venus flytrap grows natively in the wild only within about 75 miles of which city?
๐ดhard
What is the French term for an ornamental kitchen garden mixing vegetables, herbs, and flowers?
๐ขeasy
Which fruit tree did John Chapman spread across the American frontier in the early 1800s?
๐ดhard
Who designed Kew Gardens' ten-story Great Pagoda, completed in 1762?
๐ดhard
Which Scottish plant hunter, namesake of a famous fir, died in Hawaii in 1834 after falling into a bull trap?
๐ขeasy
Gardeners growing hot peppers can measure their fiery harvest on which heat scale?
๐ดhard
Which 1753 work by Carl Linnaeus is the official starting point for modern plant names?
๐กmedium
Which 18th-century English landscape gardener earned his nickname by telling clients their estates had great potential?
๐ดhard
Which botanist planted the first tulips in the Netherlands at Leiden's Hortus Botanicus in 1593?
๐กmedium
In what year did the U.S. Supreme Court rule in Nix v. Hedden that the tomato is a vegetable for tariff purposes?
๐กmedium
Zucchini, cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins all belong to which plant family?
๐ขeasy
What is the art of clipping shrubs and trees into ornamental shapes like animals and spirals?
๐ดhard
In 2023, which pepper bred by Ed Currie dethroned the Carolina Reaper as Guinness's hottest chili?
๐ขeasy
In the fairy tale, Jack trades his family's cow for what, which grows into a giant stalk?
๐ขeasy
What does it mean when a gardener is 'deadheading' plants?
๐กmedium
Which Renaissance villa garden in Tivoli, Italy, is famous for its hundreds of fountains?
๐ดhard
What is the name of Britain's oldest surviving garden gnome, brought to Lamport Hall by Sir Charles Isham in 1847?
๐ขeasy
During World War II, Americans grew food at home in what patriotic plots?
๐ดhard
Who created the famous 'White Garden' at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent?
๐ดhard
Pennsylvania's Longwood Gardens, famous for its fountain shows, was created by which industrialist?
๐ขeasy
The sunflower is the official state flower of which U.S. state?
๐กmedium
In 2007, which chili became the first recognized by Guinness to top 1 million Scoville heat units?
๐ขeasy
Gardeners are often warned to plant mint in containers because it is notorious for doing what?
๐กmedium
In August 2015, astronauts aboard the ISS ate the first space-grown crop harvested for NASA's Veggie project. What was it?
๐ดhard
Who published 'The Herball,' one of the most famous English plant books, in 1597?
๐กmedium
'Xeriscaping,' a term coined by Denver Water in 1981, is landscaping designed to reduce what?
๐ขeasy
The name 'dandelion' comes from the French 'dent de lion,' which means what?
๐ขeasy
Which garden fruit was once feared as poisonous in Europe and nicknamed the 'love apple'?
๐กmedium
Which Dutch spring garden, open only about eight weeks a year, plants roughly 7 million bulbs annually?
๐ขeasy
Which leafy garden green gave cartoon sailor Popeye his super strength?
๐ขeasy
In Beatrix Potter's tale, Peter Rabbit gets into trouble sneaking into whose vegetable garden?
๐กmedium
Brussels sprouts don't grow underground or on vines. How do they grow?
๐ขeasy
What do you call a plant that completes its entire life cycle, from seed to seed, in a single growing season?
๐ดhard
What is the name of the classic Persian garden layout divided into four parts by water channels?
๐ดhard
The towering 'Supertrees' at Gardens by the Bay are found in which city?
๐กmedium
Which cottage-garden flower is the original source of the heart medication digitalis?
๐กmedium
The Granny Smith apple was first grown by Maria Ann Smith in 1868 in which country?
๐ขeasy
Which bright orange flower is famously planted alongside tomatoes to help deter pests?
๐ขeasy
Which mint-family garden herb drives many cats wild thanks to a chemical called nepetalactone?
๐ดhard
London's Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 by which organization?
๐กmedium
What is the Victorian 'language of flowers,' used to send coded messages through bouquets, called?
๐ดhard
Which First Lady planted a victory garden on the White House grounds in 1943?
๐ดhard
Beth Chatto's famous Gravel Garden in Essex, planted on a former car park, is renowned for what?
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