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Applied Quiz: Planting, Maintenance, and Sourcing

A second set of questions on this chapter, weighted toward using the ideas rather than recalling them. Each one puts you in a situation and asks what the chapter's framework says to do.

1. At a garden center you find a pot labeled Echinacea purpurea 'PowWow Wild Berry' with doubled flowers. You are planting a pollinator restoration. What does this chapter advise?

  1. Buy it — the species is native, so it functions like a wild type
  2. Pass; for ecological plantings use wild-type, seed-grown plants of local provenance, and doubled-flower nativars are the ones least likely to support pollinators because extra petals replace reproductive structures
  3. Buy it — nativars are always better bred than wild types
  4. Nativars are never acceptable in any garden
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter's position is graded rather than absolute: nativars are a reasonable choice for ornamental beds and are still better than non-native ornamentals, but restoration calls for wild type. Doubled flowers are the specific case it says to avoid, which is why option D overstates it.

Concept Tested: Nativars vs. Wild Types

See: Chapter 11

2. You can buy Big Bluestem seed from Missouri for half the price of Minnesota-sourced seed. What does the chapter's ecotype guidance say?

  1. Buy the cheaper seed; the species is identical
  2. Source within roughly 150 to 200 miles at a similar latitude — distant seed risks poor adaptation, bloom timing out of sync with local pollinators, and inadequate winter hardiness
  3. Distance only matters for trees
  4. Any seed from within the United States is equivalent
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Ecotype is genetic variation within a species, so identical species names hide real differences in cold tolerance and phenology. The chapter adds a fourth concern: non-local ecotypes planted near wild populations can dilute local genetic fitness.

Concept Tested: Local Ecotypes

See: Chapter 11

3. It is early November. You want to seed a prairie but have not stratified anything. What does this chapter suggest?

  1. Wait until spring and refrigerate the seed for 60 days first
  2. Sow now as a fall dormant seeding — Minnesota's winter provides the cold moist stratification naturally, and this is the preferred method for most native species
  3. Sow now, but only species that need no stratification
  4. Seeding in November will kill the seed
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Bree's tip names this as the easiest stratification method: let the winter do the work. Seed sown before freeze-up overwinters in place and germinates on its own schedule in spring, which also matches how these species reproduce naturally.

Concept Tested: Fall Dormant Seeding and Stratification

See: Chapter 11

4. You want to start Wild Lupine indoors in March. When should the seed have gone into the refrigerator?

  1. It needs no stratification
  2. Around December — Wild Lupine is in the 90-day cold group, so three months of cold moist treatment has to finish before you sow
  3. Two weeks before, which is enough for any native
  4. In February, since 30 days is the standard
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter groups species by requirement: none for Black-Eyed Susan and Wild Bergamot, 30 days for Purple Coneflower, 60 for the bluestems, and 90 for Wild Lupine and Shooting Star. Planning backwards from your sowing date is the practical skill here.

Concept Tested: Species-Specific Stratification

See: Chapter 11

5. A gardener waters her new native planting lightly every evening all summer. What does this chapter say is wrong with that?

  1. Nothing — frequent watering is best for establishment
  2. Water deeply and less often instead; shallow frequent watering encourages shallow roots, and deep roots are the whole point of a native planting
  3. Native plants should never be watered
  4. Evening watering causes disease
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter's rule is one inch per week, delivered deeply. Option C is the opposite error and a common one — natives are drought-tolerant once established, which takes one to two full growing seasons, and longer for deep-rooted species like Compass Plant.

Concept Tested: Watering for Establishment

See: Chapter 11

6. A landscaper installs landscape fabric under a native perennial bed, then mulches over it. What has that cost the planting?

  1. Nothing — fabric is standard weed control
  2. It blocks self-seeding and soil building, both of which a native planting depends on to fill in and mature
  3. It prevents watering from reaching roots
  4. It is fine as long as the mulch is organic
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter lists landscape fabric among its mulching don'ts for exactly this reason. A native planting is supposed to knit together and recruit new plants into gaps; fabric freezes it at its installation state and then degrades into a mess.

Concept Tested: Mulching Don'ts

See: Chapter 11

7. You find a large stand of Prairie Blazing Star in a state Wildlife Management Area and want to collect seed. What does the chapter say?

  1. Go ahead — public land seed is free to collect
  2. Do not: collecting from Minnesota state lands without a permit from the managing agency is illegal, and even where collection is allowed you take no more than 10% and record the provenance data
  3. Collect as much as you like as long as you leave the roots
  4. Collection is fine if you replant some seed at the same site
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Two separate rules stack: the legal one about public land, and the ethical 10% limit that leaves seed for natural regeneration and for the wildlife that eats it. The chapter also asks you to collect from 20 to 50 plants to capture genetic diversity.

Concept Tested: Seed Collection Ethics

See: Chapter 11

8. A plant tag reads "Coneflower — Improved. Hardy. Full sun." What red flags does this chapter identify?

  1. None — it gives the common name and growing conditions
  2. Three: no scientific name, no provenance information, and "improved," which often signals a nativar rather than a wild type
  3. Only that it does not list the hardiness zone
  4. The tag is fine but the price is probably too high
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter's red-flag list covers all three. "Coneflower" alone is ambiguous across several Echinacea species and even other genera, which is why the Latin binomial is called the most reliable identifier.

Concept Tested: Reading Plant Labels

See: Chapter 11

9. Two seed lots of the same species cost the same. One was collected from a single large parent plant; the other from many plants across a site. Which does this chapter prefer, and why?

  1. The single-parent lot, because it is more uniform
  2. The multi-parent lot — genetic diversity gives the planting resilience against disease and environmental change, which uniformity cannot
  3. They are equivalent; seed is seed
  4. The single-parent lot, because provenance is easier to document
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Uniformity is a virtue in a crop and a liability in a restoration. A genetically narrow planting can fail all at once to a single pathogen or a single bad year, which is the risk diversity spreads out.

Concept Tested: Genetic Diversity in Seed Lots

See: Chapter 11

10. When is native seed ripe enough to collect, and how can you tell without a calendar?

  1. As soon as the flower fades
  2. Most Minnesota natives ripen between late July and October, and ripe seed detaches easily when touched or shaken — if you have to tug hard, it is not ready
  3. Only after the first hard frost
  4. Seed is ripe whenever the plant turns brown
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The tug test is the useful part, because ripening dates vary by season and site while the plant's own release mechanism does not. Collecting immature seed wastes both your effort and the plant's.

Concept Tested: When to Collect Seed

See: Chapter 11