When it comes to flamboyant flowers, few plants can beat the hardy, deciduous peony — the giant blooms can often be the size of dinner plates. The blooms are often wonderfully fragrant and make luxurious cut flowers. Depending on the variety, peonies' season of flowering is from April to July.

If your peony is unable to bring up enough nutrients from the soil, it may not be able to produce blooms. Figuring out how to fertilise peonies can be difficult, since they don’t like you to disturb their roots or bury them too deeply under layers of compost. Gardening enthusiasts on Facebook who follow the page Rural Sprout shared two kitchen scrap ingredients they feed to their peonies.

Under a post from Rural Sprout on when to fertilise peonies, Maureen Marrotte recommended using banana peels for the job.

She wrote: “Simply place a few banana peels in between the stems and around the base. Do it again after the blooming season, before they are frost-killed. 

“The peels feed the roots while the leaves store energy for next year’s blooms with potassium and other minerals. Those blooms will be sturdy and very large. I do it for mine. Great results.”

Fong Yau commented: “Last year I buried banana peels by my peony and it didn't seem to make any difference. However, this year it has grown back really strong and has lots of flowering buds.”

Banana peels are full of potassium, which helps spur on more blooms, stronger stems to support them, and disease resistance. 

Alternatively, some gardening lovers have raved about another natural scrap item – used tea bags.

Maryanne Hill said: “Mine looked bad until I fertilised it with a few tea bags.”

Hazel Teagle wrote: “Oh my goodness, I just put my tea bags out there, and mine have thrived and bloomed every year for over 20 years.”

Once you apply your natural fertiliser, immediately water the area. This blends the produce into the soil and allows the nutrients to move into the soil.