Does someone have seeds or seedlings for Roselle Hibiscus sabdariffa L.?? I'm looking for these to grow for my husband who is diabetic. I'm in zone 7b...will it survive my winters? Dave's says 8a. Peggy

when i first grew it, it got really big, it was almost in the stage of producing flowers. then evil landlord cut it. i grew some last year, they only produced some seeds. the only one that is growing this year, died just a few days ago. so i want more. who has those seeds? can u give me some? thanks!

You can also buy the roselle seeds from Richter's, a Canadian herb supplier. (richters.com) jmcgraw, I would love your roselle jelly recipe if you're willing to share. you can send via an email. TIA. Cora

I start roselle indoors under lights similar to the way I start tomatoes or peppers. It is very sensitive to cold temperatures and frost, so I generally don't transplant any of the plants into the ground until okra-planting time. Roselle is a short-day plant and it is photoperiodic, so it isn't going to start blooming until well after the summer solstice no matter when you plant it. I think mine usually start blooming in August and the very first year they didn't bloom much until September. However, they then bloomed heavily until frost, which for me is usually in mid-November or even later. I mostly used them for roselle jam which is my favorite jam or jelly that I've ever made, and the only one we love so much that we never give any of it away. It is sweet but tart sort of like plum jelly but not exactly the same, maybe with a bit more tartness. To me, it is more like blueberry jam but better. I also like to dry the calyxes and use them to make tea. It is roselles that put the "zing" in Red Zinger Tea. They also are used to make a drink called many names, and which I know as Flor de Jamaica. Some people eat the leaves in salads or cooked similar to spinach but I haven't tried that. Roselles are used in many tropical and sub-tropical cultures in cooking, and one way you can read about all the different places they're grown and used is to read the Roselle wikipedia page. It also is used medicinally in some cultures as the roselles are high in polyphenols. You can harvest and use the calyxes when they still are fresh and soft or after they are older and have hardened. If I'm busier with canning and dehydrating other crops, I just leave them until they are older and hardened. They work fine either way. They are huge monster plants. Mine usually spread out 4-5' wide and get 6 to 10' tall and it is almost impossible to remove the plant "stump" which is so big by the end of the growing season that it looks like a tree trunk. You cannot pull them up, you have to dig them up. If you grow a lot of them, they take up a ton of space. I space them 5' apart and grow something vining, like sweet potatoes or icebox melons on the ground beneath them as a ground cover type plant, giving me two crops out of the space instead of just one. The plants themselves are beautiful. The flowers are very similar to okra flowers in appearance. Hope this helps. Dawn