Her Little Flowers Quiz: 20 Questions on Plot, Characters, and Themes

This quiz spans the full arc of Shannon Morgan's Her Little Flowers, from Francine's tea-leaf readings and the arrival of the lodgers to the discovery of the sisters' remains and the epilogue's quiet transformation. Questions are grouped into four sections: plot and sequence, character motivation, theme and symbol, and synthesis. A complete answer key with brief explanations follows. If you need a refresher, revisit the book overview or the ending explained before you begin.

Plot and Sequence (Questions 1–8)

1. At the start of the novel, what does Francine see in her tea leaves?

A) A ship and a heart
B) A raven and a serpent
C) Sharp words with someone whose name begins with C or G, a cross, and a letter arriving that morning
D) A cat and a man in a top hat

2. Who arrives as lodgers at Thwaite Manor?

A) Todd Constable and Keefe O'Driscoll
B) Sam Woodall and Todd Constable
C) Madeleine and Jonathon
D) Miss Cavendish and Marjorie Whitcombe

3. What crucial family secret does Madeleine reveal when she first returns home? (Short answer)

4. After the library wall collapses, what does Francine discover in the hidden cavity?

A) A stash of gold coins
B) The skeletons of her three sisters
C) A collection of old letters
D) A priest hiding from persecution

5. What happens to Bree's ghost in the final confrontation?

A) She becomes a living girl again
B) She dissipates after Francine confesses and apologizes
C) She flees into Lonehowe Wood
D) She is banished by a salt-and-herb ritual

6. What items does Francine find in the hidden hollow among the boulders? (Short answer)

7. What is the ultimate fate of George Thwaite?

A) He fled to America and changed his name
B) He died in Nonsuch Asylum
C) He was poisoned by Eleanor and buried in the Thwaite graveyard
D) He drowned in the well alongside his children

8. What happens to Miss Cavendish by the epilogue?

A) She moves to London to live with relatives
B) She dies peacefully in her armchair, nearly a year before the epilogue
C) She is killed by the malevolent spirit
D) She becomes a ghost who haunts the manor

Character Motivation (Questions 9–13)

9. Why does Francine choose the gravel road instead of the shortcut through Lonehowe Wood?

A) To avoid the ghostly carriage she saw in the village
B) To avoid the graveyard and the spirits that haunt the woods
C) To meet Miss Cavendish on her way to the post office
D) To collect fennel seeds and burdock for protection

10. What is Madeleine's primary reason for coming home to Thwaite Manor?

A) To sell the manor and divide the inheritance
B) To escape her seventh husband's death
C) To reveal that their mother lied about the family
D) To ask Francine for financial help

11. Why does Francine dig up her garden over five days?

A) To replant it with non-poisonous flowers
B) To find buried treasure she remembers from childhood
C) To search for the bodies of her missing sisters
D) To remove the protective herbs that attract ghosts

12. Why does Todd Constable offer to repair the manor's structural damage?

A) He is a contractor desperate for work
B) He wants to investigate the haunting for his grandmother
C) He is drawn to Francine and wants to help her
D) Madeleine hires him secretly

13. What motivates Eleanor Thwaite to poison her husband George? (Short answer)

Theme and Symbol (Questions 14–17)

14. In the novel, what does the language of flowers primarily represent?

A) A scientific classification system for plants
B) A secret means of expressing emotions and meanings
C) A religious ritual passed down through generations
D) A method of predicting the future, like tea leaves

15. What does the well symbolize throughout the story?

A) A source of life and renewal
B) Both a hiding place and a tomb
C) A gateway to the underworld
D) A place of healing and purification

16. What does the ghost cat Tibbles come to represent for Francine? (Short answer)

17. What does the unmarked grave covered with dark, hateful plants signify?

A) A forgotten ancestor who died in disgrace
B) Hatred and animosity toward the person buried there
C) A victim of the plague
D) A witch's grave marked for banishment

Synthesis (Questions 18–20)

18. How does the dual-timeline structure enhance the novel's suspense and emotional impact? (Short answer)

19. Compare Francine's relationship with Madeleine to her relationship with Bree. (Short answer)

20. What is the significance of the title Her Little Flowers?

A) It refers to the garden's abundant blooms
B) It refers to the mother's pet name for her daughters and the floral symbolism that encodes their identities
C) It refers to the ghosts that haunt the manor
D) It refers to the hotel's name in the epilogue

Answer Key

1. C. The tea leaves predict sharp words with someone whose name begins with C or G, a cross, and a letter arriving that morning (Chapter 1). The other options are red herrings: a raven and serpent appear later in Miss Cavendish's reading, and a ship and heart appear in Francine's later reading.

2. A. Todd Constable and Keefe O'Driscoll arrive in a white van as the carpenter and apprentice booked for a five-month tenancy (Chapter 3). Sam Woodall is a retired policeman, not a lodger; Madeleine is Francine's sister; Miss Cavendish is a neighbor.

3. Madeleine reveals that their mother lied: there were seven siblings born between 1961 and 1968, and Bree and Montgomery drowned on 26 July 1969. She also says there is no record of their father's death, contradicting their mother's story (Chapter 6).

4. B. The collapsed wall exposes a hidden cavity containing the skeletons of Rosina, Viola, and Agnes, who had been trapped in a priest hole and suffocated (Chapter 23). The other options are not supported by the narrative.

5. B. After Francine confesses that Monty's death was her fault and apologizes for not understanding Bree's clues, Bree's ghost dissipates, leaving Francine with restored memories (Chapter 26).

6. Francine finds a doll, a book, buttons, a biscuit tin, and a small tractor in the hidden hollow (Chapter 13). Later she also finds a buried tin box of old money, but the question asks specifically about the hollow.

7. C. Francine realizes her mother killed George and buried him in the Thwaite graveyard, where flowers spelled out a message of hatred (Chapter 26). He did not flee to America or die in the asylum; he escaped Nonsuch but returned to the manor.

8. B. The epilogue states that Miss Cavendish died peacefully in her armchair almost a year earlier and was buried beside Eleanor Thwaite. Her terminal cancer was revealed in Chapter 4.

9. B. Francine walks the gravel road rather than the shortcut through Lonehowe Wood, and her fear of graveyards and spirits is established early. She does not avoid the carriage (she sees it in the village), and she collects fennel and burdock for protection, not as a reason to avoid the wood.

10. C. Madeleine comes home specifically to tell Francine that their mother lied about the family, presenting birth and death records (Chapter 6). She is recently widowed, but that is not her primary reason for returning.

11. C. Francine digs up her garden to search for the bodies of her missing sisters, having concluded that George killed them and buried them there (Chapters 15–16). She spares the memorial bed planted for her siblings.

12. C. Todd offers to repair the manor's structural damage and later asks Francine on a date; his interest in her is clear. He mentions his late wife and his Jamaican grandmother's knowledge, but he is not investigating the haunting professionally.

13. Eleanor poisoned George to protect herself and her daughters from his abuse and his threat to force her to bear more sons to secure the manor's inheritance (Chapters 24–25). She also gave him food and money before he left, but the poisoning was a deliberate act of self-defense and maternal protection.

14. B. The language of flowers is a secret, unspoken language used to communicate emotions and meanings, as the author's note explains. It is not a scientific system, a religious ritual, or a divination method.

15. B. The well is where Bree and Montgomery drowned, and it also serves as a hiding place for Francine and Bree during the night of the tragedy. It is both a refuge and a tomb, central to the novel's trauma.

16. Tibbles represents comfort, memory, and a link to the past. The ghost cat was Madeleine's childhood pet that disappeared, and it stays with Francine, sleeping on her bed and keeping watch, offering a gentle presence amid the haunting.

17. B. The unmarked grave's plants—monkshood, tansy, St John's wort, basil, lobelia—shriek hatred and animosity, as Francine observes (Chapter 8). This grave later proves to be George's, and the hatred is Eleanor's enduring message.

18. The dual-timeline structure reveals the past gradually, alternating between the present investigation and the 1969 events. This creates suspense by withholding key facts—such as Francine's role in Monty's death and the sisters' fate—while deepening emotional resonance as readers see the children's innocence and the mother's desperation.

19. Francine's relationship with Madeleine is initially distant and strained, marked by resentment and misunderstanding, but it reconciles as they uncover the truth together. Her bond with Bree is deep, protective, and transcendent—Bree is her beloved sister and ghostly guardian, and Francine's love for her endures even after Bree's spirit passes on.

20. B. The title refers to Eleanor's pet name for her daughters—"my flowers"—and to the language of flowers that assigns each child a symbolic bloom (lantana for Francine, dogwood for Bree, peony for Viola, etc.). It encapsulates the novel's central motif of floral symbolism encoding identity, love, and loss.

For further discussion, see our questions and answers page or explore the ending explained for a deeper dive into the novel's resolution.