Garden experts want you to bury this fruit bowl staple in your roses this July for brighter, bolder flowers in autumn

Experts are urging gardeners to add bananas to their roses right now for a flurry of gorgeous blooms this autumn.

I’m not sure any garden is complete without a rose bush. Whether you love a traditional red, showy pink or classy cream, growing roses is a joy to any gardener and those who visit.

But if you really want your roses to stand out this year, then garden experts say you need to add your banana peels to them right now, for brighter blooms and stronger stems. This is why.

Why you should add bananas to your roses this July

Banana peels are a natural fertiliser for roses, which is why you want to add them to your roses. While you can buy a quality fertiliser for £6.50 at B&Q, banana peels are essentially useless and would end up in your compost bin anyway.

‘Bananas are beneficial to roses in much the same way as they are to humans. Just like the fruits themselves, banana peels are full of potassium, which can help boost your roses' immunity, make their stems nice and sturdy, and encourage the growth of new flower buds. Banana peel is also high in Phosphorus, helping roses to develop more robust root systems, improving their ability to absorb water and nutrients,’ explains Harry Lloyd, garden expert at waste removal company HIPPO.

‘The more time banana peels have to decompose, the more bioavailable (and absorbable) their nutrients become. Burying peels now during July or August will mean that by autumn they should be almost fully decomposed, encouraging one last beautiful bloom of strong, well-formed roses before winter.’

Adding banana peel can produce 20-30% more flowers in your autumn flush, according to experts at GardenArch.

The high potassium content (10-15% of total nutrients) perfectly mimics commercial rose fertilisers, but with added organic matter and micronutrients. It's cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and delivers genuine results,’ says Sophie, an expert at GardenArch.

She recommends chopping two to three banana peels before burying them four to six inches deep around the rose base and watering thoroughly.

While early spring is typically the best time to fertilise roses, you should still feed your roses banana now, especially if you have an autumn-blooming variety such as Rose Rugosa (£19.99 at Dobies).

‘Although they do produce smaller blooms, Floribunda Roses (£15.95 at Gardening Express)are some of the hardiest rose varieties, often continuing to bloom throughout Autumn. English Shrub Roses (£33 at David Austin Roses) are also generous bloomers, with many well looked after plants flowering well into November!’ says Harry.

If you want a flourishing cottage garden that lasts well into the autumn, simply putting your banana peels in your roses instead of your compost bin is a great place to start.