Roses are known for their beautiful flowers, but getting them to look their best can be a struggle if they are not growing in the right soil. Fiona Nevile, a gardener and the founder of Cottage Smallholder, has shared that she decided to try an old-school gardening method and began feeding her rose bush tea bags.
She said, “Remembering that my mum used to put the tea leaves on the soil under the rose bushes, I have been feeding the rose that grows outside the back door with the leftover tea and leaves.” The gardener shared that her rose bush was incredibly weak and was surprised to see it begin producing flowers again after she fed it tea.
Fiona added: “The rose, has always been stick like. A Kate Moss amongst roses. With most of the growth at the top of slim stems. Now new buds are forming lower down. Fired with enthusiasm, I cut out all dead growth at lunchtime and watered it well.
“I looked up the benefits of using tea as a fillip for the garden and discovered that it’s a natural fertiliser for roses and a host of other plants including parsley. In fact most plants would benefit from a top dressing of tea leaves even the ones emptied from old teabags.”
Tea contains a small amount of nitrogen and trace amounts of phosphorus and potassium, which are the essential nutrients needed to help plants grow.
Nitrogen focuses on growing the stem and leaves on a plant, which can support flowering. Once it begins to bloom, the plant will be stronger and have more energy.
It can also help make roses more resistant to fungal diseases, which tend to be more common in springtime due to the humid weather.
Tea bags or leaves will also improve the quality of the soil, making it slightly acidic and helping retain more moisture, which will help roses thrive.
How to make a feed for roses out of tea bags
To begin, save your leftover tea bags and place them in a bucket. Only use black, green, or other herbal teas, as tea bags containing artificial flavouring or sugar could harm the plants.
Pour roughly about a gallon of water over your tea bags, then let them seep into the bucket for a few hours or overnight.
Remove the tea bags from the liquid, and then place the tea-infused water in a watering can. Use the water on your roses, and it should help give them a boost.
It should be noted that natural feeds such as tea bags are more potent than store-bought fertilisers, and it is incredibly important to use them in moderation.
Adding too much tea to rose soil will over-fertilise the plant and also make the soil too acidic, so you need to be careful.
Water roses with tea-infused water once a month to help the soil without overwhelming it, and it should help roses be more robust once they begin flowering.