Now then George... who's going to be the first of our members who'll admit to talking to their plants
I confess we curse a little at some of our weeds, but expressing endearments out loud to the beautiful bloomers we have on a one-to-one basis... I think NOT.
Most of our plants respond well to our normal TLC; pruning, watering/feeding, correct soil pH and location in ground, all without any verbalisations. Now, some could argue that they may respond even BETTER if they were spoken to nicely, but we're happy with the results we get and don't think we could get any more from them. So, Kathy and I fall into the gardening camp of not being 'plant talkers'
I do believe that an American program called
Mythbusters did an experiment with this a while ago. Three greenhouses were set up containing the same types of plants. Greenhouse 1 was the 'control' set, whereby nothing different happened in there. In Greenhouse 2 the plants were shouted out and sworn at regularly throughout the day. In Greenhouse 3 the plants were spoken to quietly and given all sorts of nice comments and praises.
The experiment went on for about 3 months or so, and all plants were otherwise watered, fed and pruned the same in all 3 greenhouses.
If I remember correctly, the plants that were talked to nicely and 'molly-coddled' did respond the best by producing better growth, longer-lasting and bigger flowers.
I suppose you could read into that what you will, and sceptics would say it was just a coincidence. But, food for thought nevertheless
Laurie.