Roses are at their fullest and most vibrant in midsummer, but as August approaches they may lose their lustre and begin to fade.

However, there is an easy way to help roses flowers last much longer as all you need is to make plant food out of four simple ingredients you likely already have in your home.

Charlotte Ekker Wiggins, a gardener and founder of Bluebird Gardens has shared that she has been using the same recipe for homemade rose food for decades to help boost their blooms to keep them looking stunning.

She said: “What I do know is that this homemade rose food works. When I worked in a government office, I used to take fresh flowers in for our coffee break room, two bouquets of flowers every week or so.

“When my tea roses were blooming, I would take in those little bouquets and get accused of buying the flowers or having a secret admirer who gave them to me. Grew them myself, I would say, but people would still raise eyebrows.”

It may sound strange, but certain kitchen scraps can help give roses the nutrients they may be missing from their soil to help them grow much more efficiently.

To make homemade rose food, you will need: 

• Dried eggshells
• Banana peels
• Used coffee grounds
• Epsom salt
• Two empty containers with lid
• Paper towels or newspaper

Banana peels are a high source of potassium for roses, which helps improve the overall health of roses while also contributing to making the stems and flowers stronger.

Epsom salt contains magnesium which helps enhance flower production to help blooms grow bigger and more abundant.

Eggshells are rich in calcium which is essential for root development and also helps prevent blossom end rot, a disease common in roses.

Coffee grounds are a good source of nitrogen which is needed to help foliage grow and also helps improve the soil structure which helps water retention to make sure roses are properly hydrated in the summer.

Crushed eggshells and coffee grounds are also a great way to keep slugs away from roses as these pests cannot stand the strong smell of coffee while the jagged texture of crushed eggshells makes it difficult for them to crawl over.

How to make homemade rose food: 

You will only need around one banana peel, two eggshells, one small cup of coffee grounds (around 90g) and one tablespoon of Epsom salt per rose plant in your garden.

To begin, place a basket or container somewhere safe in your kitchen and line it with a paper towel (or newspaper).

Place any used banana peels and eggshells in the basket to dry out completely as it makes them much easier to use later, and then line another container with a paper towel to pour any used coffee grounds into.

Make sure to wash out the eggshells completely before adding them to a container as any remaining yolk could attract pests to your garden.

Charlotte said: “Once it’s time to start using, I mix banana peels and coffee in equal parts. I add crushed egg shells and Epsom salts half the amount of the banana peels. Mix.”

To use on roses, simply make a small trench in the soil around the drip line of your roses and pour the mixture in. You will only need to feed this homemade mixture to roses once a month to get bigger, lusher and longer-lasting flowers for the rest of summer.