Do you talk to your plants?

Tasajillo aka Pencil cactus, Jumping cactus and other things I can't write here! THOSE are worse than the heads-and-tails bushes!!! Mostly we've got mesquites, junipers and a few prickly pears that have encroached on the hayfields ~ 20 years of laying fallow and they need to be cleared again. I haven't been in a position to clear them before, but now that I'm older and matched to a man who thinks much as I do, we'll be clearing them later this year and planting hay among other things. I can't wait to see rolling green fields of grass again! (BTW, have you checked the weather lately, Aimee? We're under a tornado watch and there's a big storm on radar headed our way.)

Wintermoor, I'm sorry we've kind of hijacked your thread! LOL! Wanna' come over to Texas and help us cuss the nasty things we have here? I'll pay your way if you can talk enough to get rid of my 60 acres of mesquite!! Then again, I know I blow an awful lot of hot air ~ you start on one side, I'll start on the other and I'll bet we'll meet a good bit on your side of the middle. *GRIN!*

LOL, I'll huff and I'll puff...

Don't worry about hijacking threads, isn't that why they are there, for the diversity?

I get really carried away by reading all of your posts, because they touch on subjects of which I would never dream.

Keep hijacking, I'm loving every minute of it ;-)

All the best

Wintermoor

Wingnut, I have been getting the warnings in email, thinking I need to shut down but stalling until the thunder gets closer. It sounds like a nasty one. Yep, we have the same dreadful green pasture critters. But all mixed in is the wonderful assortment of wildflowers I love so much. Now that I don't have goats and sheep, they have come back even better. The nice thing about them is that some aren't bothered by wildlife, although the ironweed and Joe Pye were the last three years to a terrible degree.

Can't you just send this guy Joe Pye home?

Sounds to me that this rat has overstayed his welcome ;-)

I'd give him a right good kick up the jacksie with a pair of size 43 hobnailed boots...... so there.... Hmph!!


All the best

Wintermoor

Just don't blow them over our way Okay?

Oh, no, I love Joe. He has a nice fluffy topknot of pink, and is so easy to please. I am angry that the deer love to nibble on his topknot and keep some seeds from forming.

I don't have Joe Pye weed, I don't think. I do have Ironweed and Snow on the Mountain. I love to watch the butterflies all over them!

Yep, the storm is around Mason right now ~ they have a tornado WARNING! Egads!! I imagine it'll be another hour or so 'til it's here, then about that long 'til it gets to you. I usually just keep right on surfing during a storm. My 'puter is a REAL dinosaur and I'd love to get a new one, but I can't stand to spend that much when this one works fine usually. Maybe one day playing "Rainstorm Roulette" will pay off and I'll "have" to buy another one. *grin*

Thanks, Wintermoor! I'll bet by the time Aimee and I are done, you'll know more about Texas than you ever wanted to. LOL! Wanna' come play Twister with us? You just might get a chance tonight if you hurry on over.

Linda, the last warning I received said it was supposed to hit here about 8, which is a little over an hour from now. I have to go out, so I will be in South Austin by then, and North Austin about half way through. Just hoping it won't bring hail until I get the truck under the covers. Once I am inside the buildings, I should be fine. Thunder has receded for now, is this the quiet before? Headed to the prayer forum, then out.

Don't you just LOVE all the different stations' different forecasts? One said the storm was moving at 30 mph, then we changed channels and they said much the same as you just did. Regardless, I hope you have a safe drive, Aimee.

Thanks, Wingnut, and I'm off now. Don't flood.

It just now hit in full force. 30 seconds ago, just a couple sprinkles ~ now it's a torrent out there! Man, it's really coming down!!! Be careful, Aimee!!!

I only talk to mine when they wither and go to plant heaven. usually complaining about how much they cost.

I'm sure you have noticed the plant to die is always your favourite or the most expensive!!

Mark

Yes Mark
or it was a gift from someone who really cares for you, and watches its progress at every visit. OOOOhh that can be embarrasing.

All the best

Wintermoor

LOL Are you kidding me? I talk to my plants, myself, the dog, my birds, the TV, the computer, the wall!

I read an article one time that claimed that those who talked to themselves were better at problem solving, because they tended to talk themselves THROUGH things. If that's the case, then theoretically I should be the QUEEN of problem solving! :-D

*ahem* Theoretically, of course.

Listening to all you Texans here sure makes me homesick. Thats where i was born and raised. born in Mesquite , raised in Van.

Yep - I say "Grow Darn you, or I'll jerk you out by your roots!!

Hi Indashade, Hi Azalea,

IndaShade, I don't really talk to myself as such, apart from a wee mumble now and then, but I have been known to stand in front of a mirror before a big meeting, and 'shadow box'. SWMBO came into the bathroom one evening as I was standing in front of the mirror putting my case in point to myself..... she just looked at me and slid slowly back out of the door. She thought i had bats in the belfry.

Azalea, wouldn't that sort of destroy the purpose?? ;-D

All the best

Wintermoor

I tried to talk to my plants, but I keep hearing voices saying "people will think you are crazy if you talk to your plants!" :)

This message was edited Tuesday, Apr 9th 9:05 AM

Great thread - I went to a master gardeners class in Febrauary where they discussed a study documented in the Secret Life of Plants that provided statistics in studies where people talked to plants, thought nice thoughts of plants and played classical music for them.

Well, I got a cute little chinese evergreen for my new work space (absolutely no natural light) got a small flouresent bulb, play mozart for it every couple of days, think nice thoughts and pet it occasionally. Since February it has doubled in size, and now has three blooms on it. Plants in this office have consistently been fairly sickly or died before. It doesn't even get any light over the weekend.

I have started the routine for my houseplants and they have done so well I have gone from two to six house plants since February! I am a believer!

Now I am really forced to get that book. I know Dr. Moore wasn't alone in the study he conducted, and other botanists at other schools exchanged information with him. I would read the entire book just to see him get one word of credit. He must be smiling down on us as he sees this information still being discussed after so many years. The infant son I packed along to the greenhouse is now 46 years old, and I think Dr. Moore must have been younger than that then. Of course, in those days, it was considered rude to ask one's age, especially a younger person asking an older one. Now I wonder.

Hi Tim, Hi RiseAnn, and HI AIMEEEEEEE (just back from the storm),

Tim,
I don't care what the 'little voices' say, I used to get the feeling 'I can't do this, people will think I'm bugs', so what, did they buy the plants? Let them think what they like, but one thing I know they like is to come along to my place, or downstairs from the third or fourth floor, and sit amongst the plants which have been raised by a nutcase who talks to them all the time.
Slowly but surely, they are all coming around to my way of thinking. Print out Aimee's post of her Professor/Doctor Moore, and slap that in front of anyone who looks like they're laughing about you, and then ask them 'WHY?'.

Hi RiseAnn,

great post, did you see my post from the 6th of April at 06:45?. It's almost the same type of situ.

Strange isn't it that my old Scottish Gran gave me the hint? She got it from her Mother, who probably got it from her Mother, who prob.......

How did those old-timers know this sort of stuff? Who taught them all of this? Aimee's Dr. Moore studied this phenomena for years, (see Aimee's post on this thread also), and there have been other studies, where soft music has been played...... I think it was in the Univ. of Manchester in England, where they played a selection of different types of plant different types of music, e.g. in one room a selection of plants was played soft classical music, in another the same types of plants were played hard rock, and so on, over 8 or 10 rooms. It was found that some plants preferres Bach to Bon Jovi, but others preferred ac/dc to Barry Manilow (Well, who could blame them, lol). The main point from the thread was to find out, if the people who spoke to their plants had a more successful growth that the others/if the people who spoke to their plants had noticed that the plants grow better than before they spoke to them.

AIMMMEEEEE!!!!!!!

You're back safe and sound, thanks be to whichever God. I was getting a wee bit worried about you, after I read you went out for an evening drive, just to watch the twisters coming over ;-) Your Dr. Moore must be mentioned somewhere in some book, or even as I said before, probably from the BBC, cos as you know they always make the deepest of in-depth docu. films and reports, and a man like Dr. Moore, and his work would not have gone unnoticed to the great BBC-Eye-In-The-Sky.

Nice to know you're safe Aimee

All the best

Wintermoor

Aimee, next time you're in Austin, go to Half Price Books http://www.halfpricebooks.com/ Because of all the "Hippies turned Yuppies" that are now moving into more expensive digs and need to unload, I'll bet you'll find a copy real cheap (I think mine was less than $2). Let me know if you can't find it anywhere and I'll send you my copy so you can read it. I haven't yet and am currently into three other books with three more up next, so it'll be another month or two or three before I read it. Same goes for you, Wintermoor if you'd like to read it and can't find it near you. It's an old copy, but I'll bet we can keep the pages in order atleast. *grin*

I did look in it for any reference in the "Acknowledgements" and index to a Dr. Moore, but sadly no mention. That's not to say that he wasn't mentioned in it somewhere. The copyright is 1973, so it's entirely possible! Some of the chapters sound kind of out there ("Plants that can read your mind" and "Visitors from Space"), but most are more what you'd expect from a book with the cover blurb of "A fascinating account of the physical, emotional and spiritual relations between plants and man."

Who wrote it...... Steven Spielberg???? ;-)

All the best

Wintermoor

No, but I hear he's been tapped to direct the movie version. Tee-hee!

I have been told once or twice that I was out of this world, and I think I now understand. I find nothing weird about this line of thought. Just because a person speaks in a different language doesn't mean he/she isn't able to communicate with me. I feel like all living things communicate in some way. I saw the movie "The GOds Must Be Crazy", a cute little foreign film, and it all made sense to me. So, yes, I talk to all living things. But the part that gets difficult to explain is when I also talk to the car. I call it all kinds of things, or sometimes I praise it. I also blaspheme the vacuum cleaner, the toaster, the fridge, when they annoy me. I don't think they are very sensitive, though. Even when I kick them, they just sit there.

I know you're looking for stories of plants that have responded to humans talking to them, but after Aimee's last statement, I have to add that I do talk aloud to my trucks and it seems they respond! Kenny will cuss them and cuss them and they won't start ~ I'll get in, say, "Come on, baby." and vrooOOOMMM! Tee-hee!

Seriously, I do believe that plants respond to humans. I just talk so much all the other times that I like my quiet time in the garden, just "thinking to" the plants. I've never researched this subject in depth, but I'm not surprised to read Aimee's stories and the others posted here. Come on everybody! Surely we're not the only ones who think like this. Anyone else have stories?

Oh I definitely can't talk back to those little voices, people in white jackets will come and take me away for sure. LOL

Wingnut, have you also found that certain cars just don't run as well for you? I swear, Chrysler and Pontiac loved me, and hummed along like contented kittens. I have always liked GM products, too, but they don't like me. Fords will run ten times better for me. I had one car I swear was out to get me, and would stall in heavy traffic, swerve suddenly, lurch ahead from a full stop with no action from me. Once it actually ran away on the freeway, just wouldn't respond to anything, including turning off the ignition. I narrowly missed being killed before I reached an exit ramp, whereupon it settled down and made me look like a total fool. I loved that car, have her carcass still, but she hated me at times. Totalled her twice, rebuilt her, had all wiring replaced. I love her still.

Aimee write a book? She is a book or I bet she already writes books...LOL

I am enjoying this thread!

Cheers,
Rebecca

Reb, thanks for the confidence, but I just don't know how to do that. Wish I did, I really wanted to when I was younger. Wanted so badly to be a journalist, but the best I could do was produce a daughter who was. She often told me about columns she wrote that were actually my own work but she shamelessly plagiarized with my blessing. Somehow, it just never seems to come together for me to write. Maybe I talk too much, although DD talks nonstop and was a great writer.

WINGNUT
yes i have read some of it and yes i can still pull out the weeds and trim the hedges it just makes you think a bit thats all and maybe you say sorry i don't need you and the plants you want to keep are happy because they are not getting crowded by invasive plants
happy reading and weed pulling

Aimee... got my phone bill today, when I called you (you LOL) mostly talked for 127 minutes...I couldn't believe we talked for that long and enjoyed every minute of it and will call you again soon!

As for jamming my plants with the new speakers...I have heard they love ELVIS and that is what I'm gonna play for them!

Lady...you could write a book!

(((Rebecca)))

Thanks, Troy. It's definitely seventh on my list of books to read now!

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said.
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers....
How did it go?
How did it go?

Shel Silverstein
"Where the Sidewalk Ends",1974

Oh, Weez, we are indeed sisters under the skin. I love Shel's work. Thanks for reminding me of this.

Wasn't he a peach! I've heard he was a large, rangy sort of man, but his voice was quite different.. more in keeping with a small balding, unhappy gent! Of course, I'm basing this on a reading of "Someone Ate the Baby"!

I have a friend who once was a roomie of Shel down in the Keys, and I can ask him for first hand details if you like. I know they did a lot of, shall we say, creative snacking and such, so it's possible he has a romanticized image of Shel at this point, but many years ago he told me of conversations they had that were intriguing.

Too funny, Aimee: I have two friends that claim some acquaintance, as well. Shel was certainly an interesting soul!