Plant Guide
Edible calyxes, stems, flowers and leaves with a zing!
Beautiful 3 to 5' high hibiscus-family plants with red stems, leaf margins, and calyxes. The bright red calyxes make a "zingy" tea, sauce, or jam. The tea is widely popular in Egypt where it's called karkade. The creamy-white flowers and young leaves are edible and have a citrus tang. Tropical grown as annual in temperate climates. Papery flower blooms give way to the bright red, fleshy calyces that are used fresh for jelly, syrup or wine or dried in herbal teas where they impart a bright red color and tart flavor.
Malvaceae Hibiscus sabdariffaRoselle
Beautiful 3 to 5' high hibiscus-family plants with red stems, leaf margins, and calyxes. The bright red calyxes make a "zingy" tea, sauce, or jam. The tea is widely popular in Egypt where it's called karkade and can potentially lower blood pressure. The creamy-white flowers and young leaves are edible and have a citrus tang. It is also grown in warmer areas as a thick ornamental annual hedge.
Basics
- Ease of Growing
- Moderate
- Grown as
- Annual
- Days to Maturity
- 90-100 (Spring/Summer)
- Growing Habit
- -
- Hardiness
- Tender
Tender perennial usually grown as an annual. Very frost sensitive.
- Crops
- Spring Transplant
- Growing Season
- Long
- Cultivar Type
- -
- Growing Conditions
- Warm, Hot
Prefers full sun, high humidity, and protection from wind. The plants prefer soil rich in organic matter. Thai Red is day-length sensitive and flowers mid-August, while other varieties don't flower until October.
- Outdoor Growing Temp
- 55°F - 95°F
- Min Outdoor Soil Temp
- 65°F
Wait to plant until the soil has reached at least 65˚ F.
- Start Indoors
- Yes
- Start Outdoors
- No
- Light
- Sun: min. 6 hours daily (Warm, Hot)
Plant prefers full sun and is not shade tolerant.
- Water
- Moderate
Keep soil evenly moist.
- Feeder
- Moderate
Roselle likes rich soil.
- Suitability
- High heat
- Small Gardens?
- Yes
- Containers?
- Yes, but will need a large one, like a half wine barrel
-
- Attracts beneficial insects?
- Yes
- Color
- Red
- Fruit Size
- -"
- Plant Height
- 36.0-60.0"
- Plant Diameter
- 24.0-36.0"
- Hardiness Zone
- 9-11
- Disease Resistance
- -
- Taste Profile
Roselle is mainly grown for the sour flavored calyx, which is used as flavoring for tea, sauces, cakes, pickles and more.
The creamy-white flowers and young leaves are edible and have a citrus tang.
