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[anfractuousity]

When my boyfriend and I went on a trip last summer, I knew we'd be gone for a month or so, so I entrusted the care of my plants to his grandmother. One of the plants I sent to her house was the rose bush I've posted about a few times before. It had finally started to truly flourish and was full and bushy and was blooming profusely

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[squid_ink]

AH just got this email from Oregon Extention office

Oregon State on home remedies for controlling some common plant pests (slugs, snails, spider mites, aphids)

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/19773/ec1586.pdf

[sstormwatch]

Once you have repotted the rose, and washed off the aphids, put in a banana peel at the base of the plant (just on the soil) to decompose, and it will help keep the aphids away. I got that tip from someone on this community some time ago and did it with my roses, and it does work when you have only a few aphids to worry about.

[anfractuousity]

Banana peel? What does that do?

[sstormwatch]

if I understand right, it provides potassium and other minerals that the plant needs to remain healthy, which fends off the aphids. Aphids attack plants that are weakened from lack of proper nutrients. Doing a quick google search I found it also improves the bloom of the plants, and that you can just add a whole banana (or mashed up) when you repot it as well.

[rhiannon_s]

It protects the vulnerable fruit of the banana from becoming damaged during the ripening process, as well as enabling it to be carried long distance without decaying after harvest. :o)
HTH