Kate, You cook the caylix at a very low simmer until the caylixes get very soft and the color will become paler because it went into the water. I read on the other post about roselle someone steeps theirs. That sounds like a very good way to make the juice because it is at a lower heat and less nutrients would be lost. I'm going to steep mine this time. As for timing, it is not critical. Of course, the lower the temperature the longer it will take. With a simmer it may take only 10-15 minutes. Email me your address so I can send you seeds when they are ready. I have seeds left over from last year but since the new seeds are only weeks away it would be best to wait for those. Christine

looking for red thai roselle hibiscus

I was told New Zealand Spinach was hard to germinate so I planted every seed I got in trade. They all came up, got a little size on them and were promptly devoured by the local roof mouse. The weather is still warm enough for me to try again. This mouse has eaten the tomato/eggplant seedlings and I think it's too late for me to plant them again, she devoured my prize varigated Solomons seal that I got in a trade on here and can not replace because no one but me has a rooftop woodland terraniam in sunny California, and ate every last one of my parriane carrots. She keeps pulling up chevil seedlings checking for carrots. That mouse is crazy for carrot, she even bit off one of my tumeric tops because she thought it was a carrot; just left my poor orange turmeric abandoned on top of the soil and she destroyed all my beans. Of course she polished off the wheat, amaranth and cottonseed first. Picked thru the squash melon seed tray digging out every seed she could. Risk her life for lemon queen sunflower as the birds swooped down, missed her by that much:( My California buckwheat barely gets to have flowers. She ate both my milkweed plants. Rain lily beheadings have become the norm. I think she watches me plant things because each time I check the red Japanese okra seedlings they're knocked down so I prop them back up, then i walk away and when I come back they are kicked over again. Whenever I uncover slugs and turn my back they're gone instantly. Oh, the fat greedy mouse was determined to have those sunflowers. She burned with envy as she watched the birds eating. One night in a fit of jealous rage she rammed into a sunflower as hard as she could and it fell over. Leaving a bevy of delicious seed on the ground. Now every night it's sunflower rodent football. She goes to the edge of the roof and I hear her running as fast as she can, followed by a tackle over and over, finally -timber. Alas, if you have some new Zealand spinach, Roselle, or red japonese okra please take a look at my trade list. Otherwise I'll just have to get creative with onions and potatoes, maybe season them with berry leaves.

Need lots of light to stand up straight. If you try to grow them indoors, need supplemental light. The usual is 2 4-ft fluorescents, an inch or so above their heads.