Wisconsin Master Gardener Practice Exam

Wisconsin lawns are typically managed with cool-season grasses because they grow best in cooler temperatures and survive cold winters. Kentucky bluegrass is a classic example of a cool-season turfgrass that is widely used in Wisconsin due to its good cold tolerance, density, and ability to green up nicely in spring.

Warm-season grasses, like bermudagrass, require hot summer conditions and generally do poorly in northern climates. In Wisconsin, bermudagrass is not recommended because winters are too harsh for reliable survival; it is prone to winter kill, meaning it can die back or fail to recover after cold periods. That combination—cool-season viability with a warm-season grass that cannot endure Wisconsin winters—makes Kentucky bluegrass paired with bermudagrass the best answer among the options.

The other choices mix up which grasses are cool-season versus warm-season, or pair a warm-season grass with a non-typical Wisconsin option, so they don’t fit the local climate and common lawn practices as well.