As the UK’s best-known horticultural company, Thompson & Morgan is always at the cutting edge of plant innovation and welfare. We strive to give all our plants the best possible environments to grow in and we’re continually looking for new ways of bringing out the very best in our plants before we send them to our customers.
It was suggested in recent research that plants respond well to sound; from simple speech to complicated songs from all eras, so naturally we decided to put this to the test.
The results were quite astonishing!
In our trials, we have established quite quickly that today’s plants, using the latest breeding techniques, actually respond best to modern music. The results were so conclusive that our plant breeding team has set up a sound system in the polytunnels at our plant development site to play a daily Top Ten playlist to all the plants starting at midday when the sun is at its highest. At this time, the plants get maximum light and appear to be most receptive to the music.
Resident Music Expert and former DJ, Kevin Ketley, said:
It doesn’t surprise me that plants respond in this way to music. After all, it stimulates our brain activity and causes us to smile, tap our feet and so on, so plants will naturally grow better in that environment
The Top Ten Songs that our trials showed that plants are receptive to are:
- Kiss From A Rose – Seal
- Black Horse and A Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall
- Iris – Goo Goo Dolls
- I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) – Sandi Thom
- Lemon Tree – Fools Garden
- Where The Wild Roses Grow – Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue.
- Flowers – Sweet Female Attitude
- Supermarket Flowers – Ed Sheeran
- Bed Of Roses – Bon Jovi
- Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations
Interestingly, as you can see – and hear – the plants seem to respond better to songs that actually mention them! We feel this is really quite a breakthrough and our plant breeding team will be looking for new inspiration in the coming months – they hope to be able to increase yields on root crops by playing subterranean music!
I’ve been gardening for as long as I can remember, my first earliest memory being planting seeds in my Grandfather’s prestige flower bed and having a prize lettuce growing there, which he proudly left to show everyone.
Since then, gaining knowledge and experience from both my Grandfather and my Father, I’ve continued to garden, both as a hobby and later on as a professional gardener and landscaper for 12 years. I love all aspects of it, from the design and build, to the planting out of summer borders with plants you’ve either grown from seed or raised from plugs. Unusual varieties always catch my eye and I’m keen to try growing them, even if sometimes it means learning from my mistakes.
Green smoothies are packed with leafy greens that offer a range of health benefits, including being full of antioxidants and vitamins, boosting your immune system and helping to improve digestion.
Herbs can also be used to add a flavour kick and further boost the nutritional value. They are full of antioxidants, vitamins and nutrients that fight toxins and help boost the immune system. The likes of 
Utensils
1-2 Teaspoons of Black Pepper.
Serving Suggestions
greenhouse. Sow at 1/4 deep
He takes a torch and no more than five minutes later he’s back with a disheveled looking Rhett. Apparently the one place none of us had thought to look was behind the wheelie bins between the old youth club and the surgery. I asked him what made him look there. He said because he saw an old patio table there yesterday and thought it was a funny place to put one – , so perhaps someone had fly-tipped it. So maybe Rhett is not Rhett, but then again maybe someone is still missing a patio table…
When the winds blew themselves out, I ventured into The Office as I needed that start off some seeds. The first packet were a Freebie from Just Bee Drinks, a lovely blend of bee friendly flowers, as I won them – and three cartons of Honey infused fruit juices for submitting a good bad-bee-pun at the end of January.
The Office was in a bit of a state as I had only being going in to check things and water small pots, so that afternoon I tried to rearrange the shelves. I was glad I had. After a wait of nearly nine months grass Ponytails had germinated and was in dire need of repotting. I found a surprise turnip, that needs transplanting and I nearly pitched a fit when I looked down to wipe water from my wrist to discover it was a baby slug happily sitting there.
A tray propagator that I had completely forgotten about had sprouted a couple of Heleniums and some Malvas as well as several kinds of disgusting white moulds. Holding my breath (not ideal with heart failure) and zipping my hooded fleece up to my nose I carefully carried the tray outside, rescued the good stuff then had Mark empty the tray. I moved another propagator (clean and empty) and found a remarkably big radish growing behind it in a three inch pot. I threw out the refused to germinate-in-a-year Liatris seeded pots as well as several Snow Princess Marigolds that were ruined by frosts and my new pet Slugsy, who I had put near the bird feeding station.
A few days later, I had Mark sieve fresh compost so I could start my T&M seeds. I set off some sweet peppers, 
After seed sowing Mark watered the aloe border and swept up for me. I was back in Ty Mawr checking the status of the potato grow bags which were in need of water, so were the marigold and cornflower borders. Mark watered these for me, while I mourned the loss of two baby money trees from the cold. Thankfully the newspaper wrapped dahlias are not affected. Ty Mawr is overcrowded now as I had to put the rescued cold frame plants on the path as the shelves are full. If I put them in the borders they will take root, which I don’t want. I need to cut off the dead foliage from last year’s pepper and chilli. I am not sure if the Nicotiana has survived I can’t climb over the pots to see. A sorry state really, but on the next warm day l’ll do a proper inspection.
