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alking to your plants is supposed to be good for them. But if you really want the best blooms, you should blast them with heavy metal music. That’s the unlikely finding of a study by horticultural students who tested the effects of music on plants.TV gardener Chris Beardshaw tells told Radio 4's Gardeners’ Question Time that a constant diet of Black Sabbath worked wonders – but plants exposed to Cliff Richard songs all died. Panellist Beardshaw, who has also been a familiar face on BBC2’s Gardener’s World over the years, said using rock music as a nutrient appeared to create larger flowers. And although the plants themselves were shorter, they were more disease-resistant.The test came about because one of his horticultural students wanted to write a dissertation based on the effects of music on plants. He said: ‘We had one greenhouse that was silent and we had one that was played classical music, one that was played Cliff Richard and one that was played Black Sabbath. O

Three whistleblowers have been arrested after details of chauffeur- driven journeys taken by a newly-elected police tsar were leaked to the Press. Cumbria Police’s decision to launch a probe into the exposure of the £700 trips – made by its Police and Crime Commissioner Richard Rhodes – has provoked a major political row. Last night two police staff and another man were arrested as part of the inquiry into ‘disclosure of personal information’. Another police worker was suspended after agreeing to a voluntary interview. The investigation began after Mr Rhodes’ office responded to the publishing of his expenses bill for two trips in a Mercedes by ‘raising concerns’ with police. Last night MPs queued up to protest that the arrests stifled freedom of speech and set a ‘dangerous precedent’. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the police had been ‘heavy-handed’ and that whistleblowers should be protected. South Lakes MP Tim Farron added: ‘It is wrong to seek to silence whistleblowers in

An emotional George Osborne wiped away a tear during Margaret Thatcher's funeral as the great and the good gathered at St Paul's Cathedral to bid farewell to the Iron Lady. The Chancellor was visibly moved during the early stages of the service paying tribute to Britain's first female Prime Minister. He later hinted at his dramatic moment of emotion, writing on Twitter that it had been a 'moving, almost overwhelming day'. Prime ministers past and present joined world leaders, former Cabinet colleagues and some of the key figures who played a role Lady Thatcher's downfall more than two decades ago. Political friends and foes were among the 2,300 mourners who came together to mark the passing of the longest serving Premier for 150 years. Last week Mr Osborne hailed Lady Thatcher as 'a great prime minister — probably the greatest in our peacetime history'. He added: 'We are fortunate to live in a country she did so much to transform. 'I don’t think

An elderly tortoise called Adolf has cheated death yet again - 71 years after he survived a Nazi bomb attack in the Second World War. Carey and David Miller, of Muswell Hill, north London, feared their pet reptile had died after he was caught outside in a freezing late snowfall in their garden as they visited their son abroad. The shell of the stricken tortoise, who is thought to be more than 100 years old, was finally discovered and he was taken inside to safety by the couple’s shocked eight-year-old grandson Jake. Worried: Carey Miller (pictured), of Muswell Hill, north London, feared her pet tortoise Adolf had died after he was caught outside in a freezing late snowfall in their garden as she visited her son abroad Adolf remained in their home, without a hint of life for the next month. But the Millers took him out into the sunshine last Sunday in a last desperate bid to see if the spring warmth would revive him. ‘We thought he was dead,’ children’s author Mrs Miller said. ‘Adol

It is a practice that has endured for generations – feeding the birds at the local park with the scraps from a loaf. But now wardens at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park have been ordered to stop bird-lovers throwing the ‘wrong’ kind of bread. They will swap visitors’ white bread for a replacement snack of ‘healthier’ birdseed for them to distribute. The policy is said to be aimed at protecting birdlife at St Margaret’s Loch in the royal park – including the Queen’s swans. Wardens are confiscating white bread from bird-lovers in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh (pictured) Officials in charge of Holyrood Park, claim bread can lead to starvation in birds Officials claim white bread can give birds arthritis and cause birth defects or even starvation and they have put up signs warning against the practice. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has questioned the crackdown, saying all bread is fine, as long as birds have a balanced diet. However, Holyrood Park ranger Matt McCade said

t's managed to survive without one for five millenia, but the owners of Stonehenge are now on the lookout for a general manager to run famous World Heritage Site. The successful candidate, whose 'office' will be the giant pre-historic stone circle in Wiltshire, will be required to oversee the 5,000-year-old monument's 'exciting new future'. Owners English Heritage have described the site currently as a 'miserable and desperate' experience for tourists, with Portakabins housing the visitors' centre. Stonehenge is seeking a general manager for the first time in the monument's 5,000-year history to oversee its 'exciting new future' The successful candidate will be required to spend some of their time mingling with visitors at the World Heritage Site, while the rest of the time will be spent at the new visitors' centre But a new £27million museum and exhibition gallery and large restaurant will open by the end of this year about a m

The teacher who organised vile Thatcher ‘death parties’ and compared the Baroness to Hitler, bought her council house using the Iron Lady's right-to-buy scheme and then doubled her money, it was revealed today. Romany Blythe, 45, made £150,0000 when she sold her North London home four years after buying it off the local authority in Islington. Lady Thatcher wanted to increase house ownership in the 1980s after she came to power, so she let council property residents snap them up for bargain prices from local authorities. And it appears that extreme anti-Thatcherite Miss Blythe used the scheme to make a huge sum of cash. Thatcher hater: Romany Blythe invited 5,000 to a party celebrating the Iron Lady's death, but years earlier bought a council house (right) using the landmark right-to-buy scheme, selling it for double what she paid Sale: Documents show that Miss Blythe bought the house in Islington for £141,000 and then sold it four years later for £298,000 In June 2