Northeast Gardening: So what are you growing new in 2008?, 1 by pixie62560

pixie62560 wrote:
I'm trying several things new this year but this one is not only pretty, but nutritional. It grows 5-6 feet tall , produces beautiful yellow flowers and the leaves are great in a salad. You know it as a Hibiscus, which it is, or a type of Okra. Here is some info I found on it that is very interesting.

" Aibika Hibiscus (Abelmoschus) manihot, Aibika also known as, Bele (Fiji) Pele (Polynesia) and Ailan kapis (Vanuatu)
A perennial in the tropics or an annual in cooler climates Aibika bears edible leaves on plants reaching 6 feet in height. Pale yellow flowers 6 inches across with dark centers make Aibika another attractive background plant. The leaves have a high level of leaf protein, iron, potassium, magnesium and calcium. They are eaten raw as salad, or mixed with other vegetable in a stew or as a cooked green vegetable. Aibika should not be cooked longer than 5 minutes and turned only once. The flavor is sweet and mucilaginous. Flower buds are consumed either raw or cooked.
Give aibika a sunny location and moist soil, and it will be happy. As summer heats up, aibika will flourish. "

I was given some seeds, planted only 4 and all 4 have sprouted. It seems easy enough to start from seed and grows fairly quickly. I like the fact that it has vitiams and minerals in the leaves and they can be eaten raw. I was going to use them in my salad in place of baby spinach....or maybe combined with the BS!

This message was edited Mar 17, 2008 10:06 AM