Describe a person you know who loves to grow plants (vegetables, fruits, flowers)
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card with a full sample answer, a Band 9 model of the two-minute long turn.
The cue card
Describe a person you know who loves to grow plants (vegetables, fruits, flowers)
You should say:
- who this person is
- what this person grows
- where this person grows them
- why this person loves to grow plants
Sample answer
I'd like to talk about my grandmother, who harbours an absolute passion for gardening and growing plants. She's in her late sixties now, and tending to her garden has been one of the greatest joys of her life for as long as I can remember.
My grandmother cultivates an impressive variety of plants. On the vegetable front, she grows tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and various leafy greens, while also nurturing fragrant herbs like mint, basil and parsley. On top of that, she has a beautiful array of flowers, including roses and tulips, which lend wonderful splashes of colour. She even has a couple of fruit trees that yield apricots and cherries come summer.
She grows all of this in the garden behind her house in the countryside, where she's fortunate enough to have a fairly generous plot of land. She's divided it neatly into sections - one area for vegetables, another for herbs and a lovely flower bed near the entrance. She also keeps a few potted plants dotted along her windowsills and balcony, so greenery is truly everywhere in her home.
As for why she's so devoted to it, there are several reasons. Firstly, she finds gardening enormously relaxing and therapeutic; she often says that pottering among her plants clears her mind and keeps her feeling young and active. Secondly, she takes tremendous pride in growing her own fresh, organic produce, and she loves whipping up meals using ingredients she's nurtured herself. There's also a sentimental thread running through it, as gardening was something she used to do alongside her own mother, so it connects her to happy memories. Whenever I visit, she enthusiastically shows off her latest blooms, and her enthusiasm is genuinely infectious. In fact, watching her has made me appreciate the simple pleasure of growing things, and I hope to have a garden of my own one day.
Reading a model answer is not the same as saying one. The sample above shows what a strong Part 2 answer sounds like. What it cannot tell you is how yours sounds — whether you hesitate, repeat the question back, or run out of things to say at forty seconds.
You can record an answer to this exact question and get it marked on fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and pronunciation — the same four criteria the examiner uses.
Common questions
How long should I speak for in Part 2?
Between one and two minutes. The examiner stops you at two, so aim to still be talking at the ninety-second mark rather than finishing early — running out at forty seconds is the most common problem in this part.
What do I do with the one minute of preparation time?
You get one minute and a pencil and paper. Most candidates waste it writing full sentences they then read aloud, which sounds flat. Note a few keywords against each bullet instead, so you have four things to talk about rather than a script.
Do I have to cover all four bullet points?
They are prompts, not a checklist, and you are not penalised for skipping one. In practice they are the easiest way to fill two minutes, so covering them is usually the simplest way to keep going.
Does it matter if the story is not true?
No. You are assessed on your English, not on whether the events happened. Inventing detail is fine and often easier than recalling a real memory under pressure.
Model answers written and reviewed by The English All-in-One IELTS team. They are teaching models showing what each band looks like, not real candidate scripts.