Veg Plotting

Last week I set a Sudoko puzzle with a difference, using the letters from Stourhead instead of the numbers one to nine. Here's the solution. How did you do? Did you find letters easier or more difficult than the usual Sudoko puzzle? Would you do one of these again? Other puzzles published previously on Veg Plotting : Connections   Cryptic Word Grid Garden Scramble  (the solution is here ) Garden Wordsearch  (NB no solution is given for this one as you'll know when you've found them all) Happy Families Shows of Hands special (quick ID quiz) What's in a Name? What's in a Name? Part 2

This puzzle has been waiting in the wings for a while and I'm pleased to bring you a letter based Suduko using one of Wiltshire's most famous gardens, Stourhead . In this case the letters of S-t-o-u-r-h-e-a-d are used instead of the numbers one to nine and your task is to add further letters to the grid below so that each line of nine both across and down, plus each box of nine only contains one instance of each letter. The grid is based on one published in the Radio Times which had a difficulty rating of 11/20. A printer friendly version can be found here . I'll post the solution next week, though you'll know when you've cracked it! If you enjoyed this puzzle, Sue Garrett over at Green Lane Allotments has another couple for you to try. Other puzzles published previously on Veg Plotting : Connections   Cryptic Word Grid Garden Scramble  (the solution is here ) Garden Wordsearch  (NB no solution is given for this one as you'll know when y...

Last week I set you a Connections puzzle which I hope you enjoyed. Now it's time for the answers... How did you do? I asked you to answer the questions below, and take the letter as indicated from your answer to complete the blank boxes. For multiple word answers, I asked you take the letter from a particular word if not from the first. The answers to the questions and the completed line of boxes all had something in common. How early did you make the connection? Did it help you with some of your answers? Question Answer Title of a novel by Jeanette Winterson (1985), also adapted for TV (5) Oran g es are not the Only Fruit Place in New York where John Lennon's memorial is situated (3) St r awberry Fields Name of the group with Freegle, Bingo, Droopy & Snorky as members (2, 4, & 6 of second word - just one of them will do) The B a n a n a Splits Name of the purple piec...

I love pub quizzes with friends. They're fun and sociable, with the added frisson of a possible prize if we're on top form. Sometimes one of the rounds is a Connections puzzle, where the answers have something in common. Often getting the connection early on can help with some of the more tricky questions... or lead us completely up the wrong tree if we get it wrong! One of our quizzes came up with a Connections round which I thought was worth tweaking and twisting a little for Veg Plotting . I hope you enjoy it. What you need to do Answer the questions below, and take the letter as indicated from your answer to complete the blank boxes. For multiple word answers, take the letter from a particular word as indicated, otherwise it's taken the first. The answers to the questions and the completed line of boxes all have something in common. What is the newly formed word and the Connection? Question Answer Title of a novel b...

How did you get on matching the flowers, fruit and vegetables to their respective plant Families? I hope you had some fun whilst doing so. The answers are: Amaryllidaceae - snowdrop and onion Apiaceae - Eryngium and parsnip Asteraceae - dahlia and lettuce Fabaceae - lupin and pea Polygonaceae - Persicaria and rhubarb Rosaceae - hawthorn and strawberry Which pairing surprised you the most? Well done if you spotted that by putting the pictures into alphabetical order, I'd given you three of the pairs already.

I've had a lot of fun putting together the latest edition of Puzzle Corner.  Can you match the flowers and fruit/vegetables with their plant kingdom Families? There is a flower and fruit/vegetable for each one. The Families are: Amaryllidaceae Apiaceae Asteraceae Fabaceae Polygonaceae Rosaceae I think - like me - you'll be surprised how some of these pair up with their families. I hope you enjoy this fun quiz and I'll give you the answers next week .

Every family has its own set of Christmas traditions and it's no different for NAH and me. One of our favourites is the Radio Times  (RT) bumper Prize Crossword of 60 or so cryptic clues, which marks the start of our festivities. Puzzles such as this and the RT Trackword are a shared activity we both enjoy. It's a shame they seem to have dropped the Trackword Christmas special; perhaps they've run out of suitable Christmassy phrases for us to puzzle over. Those of you unfamiliar with the Trackword may like to try your hand with this online version I've found whilst writing this post. There's also an App if you're interested. Over the past few years the crossword's become doubly delicious as a few of us get together on Twitter to exchange news on our progress. The first few days are sacrosanct: everyone is on their own to solve as many clues as possible, then little tidbits of help are offered in exchange for help elsewhere. It's only an extra hi...

NAH and I often rent a cottage for our UK holidays. Most of them have a stock of books and games to help wile away any rainy days and that's how we've rekindled our love of jigsaw puzzles. It's great to have something companionable to do on a rainy day or in the evening before going out. It's got to the point where we're disappointed when there isn't one available, so we've started to buy them as presents to guarantee we'll get our puzzle fix. As you can see, NAH's latest choice for me was very appropriate. I've just bought this jigsaw via eBay which depicts 2010's Chelsea Flower Show. It's doubly good as it's the first one I attended during the build as well as the show itself, thanks to Mark Gregory's generosity . His show garden is one of the ones featured on the jigsaw, so it's a great souvenir of happy times. Now to persuade NAH we need an early holiday, so I can tuck it into our suitcase in readiness... Do y...

How did you get on with part 2 of my Latin quiz?  Here are the answers with some examples from my garden, as are the items marked *, also pictured above. Latin Name Meaning Example nemorosus growing in woods Anemone nemorosa officinalis used in medicine Salvia officinalis* pleniflorus double flowers Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora'* quamash from the native American for sweet Camassia quamash rigescens rather stiff Diascia rigescens sativus sown, planted, cultivated Crocus sativus Tulipa from the Turkish for turban Tulipa tarda uva-crispa curly grape Ribes uva-crispa* vulgare common Foeniculum vulgare* wherryi named after an American scientist ( Edgar Wherry 1885-1982)** Tiarella wherryi xanthocarpus with yellow fruit Sorbus aucuparia var . xanthocarpa yedoensis from Tokyo Prunus X yedoensis zonalis with a distinct band of a different colour Pelargonium zonale **...

Here's part 2 of my Latin quiz, which covers the letters N to Z. Can you match the meanings with their correct Latin names? There are some culinary examples this time to sit alongside last week's floral and shrubby ones. Latin Name Meaning nemorosus with a distinct band of a different colour officinalis from the Turkish for turban pleniflorus common quamash growing in woods rigescens from Tokyo sativus curly grape Tulipa used in medicine uva-crispa double flowers vulgare with yellow fruit wherryi rather stiff xanthocarpus from the native American for sweet yedoensis sown, planted, cultivated zonalis named after an American scientist Have fun and I'll publish the answers next week! If you'd also like to have a go with A to M and missed them previously, here's Part 1 . If you're looking for some more fun to help while away the winter blues, last year...

How did you get on last week ? Here are the answers with some examples from my garden. The items marked * are shown above. Latin Name Meaning Example aquifolius pointed leaves Ilex aquifolium * balearicus from a group of islands in the Mediterranean sea (The Balearics) Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica* cirrhosus with tendrils As above dioicus having male and female organs on separate plants Carex dioica Echinops/Echinacea from the Greek word for hedgehog Echinacea purpurea floridus flowering abundantly Miscanthus floridus Galanthus from the Greek for milk  and  flower Galanthus nivalis* hirsuta hairy Primula hirsuta involucratus having a circle of bracts around the flowers Astrantia major subsp. involucrata* jonquilla like a rush (i.e. Juncus ) Narcissus jonquilla kermisinus carmine or purplish red Clematis 'Kermesina' lanatus woolly Lavandula lanata mollis soft ...

Just before I started blogging, I began a distance learning planting design/RHS course. The facilities included a discussion room so we students could interact with each other no matter where we were. 8pm on Tuesdays soon became the favoured slot for those of us who'd started the course around the same time. The only topic I remember we talked about at length was getting to grips with Latin names. We all found it very difficult, but as we hailed from Spain, Sweden, Italy and France - as well as Britain - we agreed we needed to persevere so we all could understand exactly which plants we were talking about. I soon dropped the course in favour of blogging (as I was learning more and having fun), but I've continued to persevere with Latin as it's so fascinating. There are a whole host of clues waiting to be unravelled, a bit like a jigsaw puzzle and cryptic crossword combined. Solve the puzzle and you gain all kinds of insight about what the plant looks like, its origin...

Today's Shows of Hands is courtesy of Andy Winfield who kindly emailed me this picture from the University of Bristol Botanic Garden . He says: "The plant is Osteospermum jucundum in our South African display and the hands belong to various staff and volunteers. I wanted the hands to form a circle around the flowers but with the age of some of the volunteers it would have meant them moving into positions they hadn't taken up for some years (their words not mine)." I did ponder adding this photo to Monday's Puzzle Corner Special , but I loved the smiley face on one of the hands and I felt this might get lost in a smaller photo. Thanks for a great shot Andy! I also owe Andy an apology. In my previous post  about visiting the garden, I promoted him to the position of Head Gardener. His actual job title in my view is equally grand: Botanical Horticulturalist. Oops - he was subjected to a great deal of teasing as a result of my error, sorry! Andy says he...

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to Shows of Hands so far - plenty's been happening via blogs, Twitter and email :) Naturally quite a few of the pictures submitted involve plants, so I've put some of them into a fun picture ID Puzzle Corner special. There's just 5 plants and flowers for you to name. For pictures 1 to 4, I'd like the latin name please and there's a bonus point for each of the cultivar* names for pictures 2-4. Picture 5 is a pesky usurper weed amongst the lavender, so there's a point for its common name and a bonus 2 points for the latin. That makes a maximum 10 points available and I'll put up a link to the answers at the end of the week. * = I've checked the RHS Plant Finder and it looks like they are all cultivars (propagated by cuttings rather than seed) as this part of their names is in quotes and isn't italicised ( this article nicely summarises the nomenclature and cultivation differences). My thanks to @A...

Here's the solution to the Gardener's Word Grid I published I last week. How did you do? The link takes you to the original cryptic puzzle, if you missed it the first time round and fancy having a go. There are more puzzles to come, once I've devised them!

Click on the picture to enlarge to a readable size and to print off for your own use :) The bumper Radio Times  cryptic crossword is a Christmas favourite here at VP Gardens , so perhaps it was no surprise my brain started devising some garden-related clues of its own. I then had a lot of fun trying to arrange them into some kind of grid, falling just short of the classic symmetry of a full-blown crossword. I hope you enjoy completing this as much as I did devising it. I'll publish the solution next week . A few days after putting this together, I learnt it's the crossword's centenary. This knowledge, combined with my endeavours meant I simply had to buy a copy of John Halpern's The Centenary of the Crossword . It's perfect reading for puzzle lovers :) Further puzzles will appear on Veg Plotting from time to time. In the meantime, there's my Garden Finder Wordsearch and Garden Scramble to have a go at, if you missed them previously.

Here's another fun puzzle I've put together to help while away the winter blues.  Note that I've had to omit the spaces in the Wordsearch, otherwise they show up in the puzzle. Like my Garden Scramble   puzzle, I've visited all these gardens but I might not have blogged about them... yet. If you need to use a pencil and paper to solve this, you're welcome to print off this post. If you fancy making your own Garden Finder or other wordsearch, here's the website I used for mine. If anyone knows of a wordsearch generator which also puts them on the diagonals, let me know in the comments below. NB Ignore the time on the puzzle, that was how long it took me to get a Print Screen. You have as much time as you need to find the gardens, not 11 seconds! Next up is a cryptic word grid puzzle in a couple of weeks time...

I thought it would be fun to devise a quiz for Christmas... ...can you unscramble the anagrams to find the hidden gardens? The photos are further clues but aren't necessarily presented in the same order. All the gardens are found in the UK or Ireland and I've visited them all, but I may not have blogged about them. Back lace boy (6,5) O! He must run (5,5) Half edit shoe (8,5) *  Err yet warp (10) Hop to curt man (7,5) Rob nets wit (10) New dates (4,4) Axed gritter (5,6) Roy earns my talc (5,4,5) * = Wellyman has helpfully pointed out you need to add a 'u' to this anagram to find the solution. He suggests Leafiest doh uh (or perhaps Uh! Leafiest doh) for the full anagram experience. My apologies. I've put the solution here , ready for you to check your answers. How many did you get before you had a sneaky peek? Update: Tuckshop Gardener has a fun Christmas-themed garden quiz if you fancy another stretch of your 'leetle grey cells...