A professional gardener has shared a simple method he learned from his grandfather that can help your rose garden produce fuller flowers. Roses are remarkably hungry plants in spring as they begin developing their buds, and they require the proper nutrients now if you want them to flourish into blooms.
Spring can be a hectic period in the garden, but it is crucial to prioritise feeding roses at this time. They have typically exhausted all the nutrients stored during winter, which can result in roses lacking sufficient energy to fully develop their flowers. This leads to considerably smaller and fewer blooms that are not robust enough to resist pests when temperatures climb.
However, Mark, a professional gardener and founder of The Garden Path, has revealed a straightforward method for achieving some of the best roses simply by using teabags. Mark said: "Don't throw those old teabags away; we can put them to good use out in the garden. This was something I learned from my grandfather, and now I do exactly the same."
Why Teabags Work for Roses
It may sound unusual, but teabags are an effortless and natural method to boost roses and encourage flowering that will not cost you anything. Tea contains nitrogen, the nutrient responsible for foliage growth, which is vital in spring to help flowers develop healthy stems capable of supporting heavy blooms.
Teabags also contain potassium, the most crucial nutrient for flowering, as it helps buds develop correctly. This increases the likelihood of achieving larger blooms with richer colour. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that teabags cannot fully substitute fertiliser, as they will not provide all the minerals roses require to flourish properly.
Teabags are best used in the garden as a supplementary feed to enrich the soil, draw in worms, and give roses a boost of energy to help them produce stunning blooms.
How to Boost Roses in Spring with Teabags
Simply store any used teabags in a container for approximately a week or more until you have gathered enough to fill a bowl. Once you have saved up sufficient teabags, tear open the bags and empty the tea leaves into a bowl.
It is absolutely vital that you do not put the actual teabags into your garden, as some contain plastic fibres that cannot decompose in the soil and may cause mould. When all the tea leaves are in the bowl, take them outside and scatter them around the base of your rose plant.
Use a trowel to gently work the tea leaves into the soil. When it rains, the water will carry the nutrients deep into the ground to nourish the roses. Feed your roses the tea leaves roughly once a month during spring, but no more frequently, as over-fertilising the soil can be a real risk given how potent natural feeds can be.
This tea leaf method takes less than 10 minutes, but Mark insists it is the secret behind his grandfather's gloriously beautiful roses, so it is certainly worth giving it a go yourself. Mark said: "I do not know what it is about the tea leaves, but they [roses] love whatever is in them. I have had great blooms. My grandfather's roses were some of the best I have ever seen."
