Woman floored as heatwave ’causes unexpected fruit to grow in garden’

The UK is just reaching the end of the tunnel after a record-breaking heatwave, which saw temperatures hit a record temperature for the month at 37.1 C, which was recorded on Thursday afternoon. This was recorded at Cavendish, Suffolk, according to Met Office provisional figures, making it also the hottest day of 2026.

A rare red warning of extreme heat was extended for London and parts of south-eastern England until 21:00 BST on Friday, affecting millions of people for the third consecutive day.

The warning of a danger to life had been in place on Thursday in southern, central and western areas of England and parts of Wales. This led to schools closing, train services being disrupted, and a hosepipe ban being issued in Kent.

But it’s not only people who have had to adapt to the weather, as one woman was left baffled to see an unexpected fruit start to grow in her garden due to the heat.

Taking to TikTok, a woman named Gemma from Worthing went on to share a clip of the large banana plant she had in her garden, which appeared to start to grow several bunches of bananas.

“So hot in the UK right now that my banana tree is actually attempting to grow bananas,” Gemma wrote in the overlay text of the video.

The video went on to show her garden, and Gemma zoomed in on the tall banana plant. As she continued to focus the camera on the large, green leaves, it became clear that some of the “leaves” actually were tiny green bunches of bananas that had started to grow.

Can bananas grow in the UK?

Yes, you can grow banana plants in the UK, but mostly as striking, tropical-looking foliage plants. While the plants can survive and sometimes flower, the UK climate generally lacks the prolonged, intense heat needed to grow sweet, edible bananas outdoors. So, even though Gemma’s tree started to grow the fruit, they most likely won’t taste like the bananas we’re used to.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society, while most banana trees are tender and must be brought indoors over winter, some hardier types may survive outdoors in milder parts of the UK if well protected.

They went on to say that most banana trees in the UK won’t flower or fruit outdoors, unless grown in a green house or conservatory, unless they experience particulary long and hot summers.

But people were quickly left amazed by what Gemma had shown, as hundreds of viewers took to the comment section to share their thoughts.

“This s*** is bananas,” one person jokingly said.

“I thought we couldn’t grow these. That’s so cool – I hope you get bananas,” a second person said.

Someone else shared: “My olive tree is trying to grow olives, bless em.” Another also said: “My mum grew a pineapple here in the UK and harvested it last year.”