Are you a plant addict? Here’s a quiz to answer that question

Are you a plant addict?

Sure you are! But how much of a plant addict are you?

Take this quiz and find out!

Give yourself one point for each “yes” answer.  If you think your answer is “YES!”, that is still worth one point.

A “no” answer is worth zero points but if you answer “Heavens NO!” or in some similar fashion, please make that a minus one (-1).

1. Have you ever purchased plants? (Let’s start with an easy question.)

2. Have you ever grown plants from seeds? (Because you get more plants for your money with seeds, unless you built a greenhouse to grow your seeds in and you consider the cost of the greenhouse when you figure out what those plants really cost, but who would do that?)

3. Do you buy so many plants from your local greenhouse that when you aren’t there every week, they start to worry about you? (Not worry as in “call the hospitals to see if Carol is there” but worry as in “sales are down, wonder where Carol is?”) Or if you don’t have a local greenhouse, you can answer yes if you’ve ever driven more than 25 miles from home to go to a “local greenhouse or garden center.”

4. Have you ever bought a plant without knowing where you were going to plant it? (And kinda thought you might not have a place for it without removing other plants or digging up a new planting area  but that didn’t really matter because you wanted that plant, you were going to have that plant, no matter what.)

5. Have you ever impulsively bought a plant when you were shopping for something else entirely, like groceries? (It’s hard not to just take a quick look at those plants by the entrance to the grocery store or breeze through their floral department on your way to the dairy aisle. And once you look, then you touch, and then, of course, you buy. Take that steak out of your cart and put it back. Hamburger on sale will be just as tasty and with the money you saved…)

6. Have you ever purchased a plant at a garden center just because you saw it in someone else’s cart and it looked so pretty?  (Garden centers should pay me to be a shopper. I’d load up my cart with all kinds of plants and just walk around talking to no one and everyone about how lucky I was to find those plants, and “oh yes, they have more over there”.)

7. Did you ever purchase a plant because someone told you it was rare in cultivation or the last one they had and you didn’t want to miss out on the one chance in your whole life to get that plant? (And then see above about not knowing where to plant it.)

8. Do you buy so many plants that you’ve had to “borrow” a bit of your neighbor’s garden to plant some of them? (Kind of taking that whole “neighbor view” a bit far but as long as you can see the plant, it is like you own the plant. And please do be considerate. If you plant something in your neighbor’s yard, keep it watered, etc.)

9. Have you ever purchased plants that were not exactly hardy enough for your climate zone, hoping that with your great care, they would live anyway? (Because living where it snows makes you want to grow banana plants outdoors, just like living in a tropical climate makes you want to try to grow a lilac.)

10. Have you gotten to the end of this quiz with all Yes answers? Then you deserve a bonus Yes just for that.

How did you do?

If you scored 10, you are a Bonafide Plant Addict. Congratulations!

If you scored 7 – 9, you are getting there! Wouldn’t take much, I suspect, to push you up to a 10 if you tried a little harder and just accepted that you were born to be a plant addict. You can do it!

If you scored 4 – 6, you might be kind of normal, from a worldview, but if you went to the garden centers more often, maybe with a certified “10” plant addict, you could probably improve your score and then who knows, someday you, too, could be a 10!

If you scored 1 – 3, you must be new to gardening.  Just you wait…

If you scored zero or less, why are you here?

What was your score?