I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right forum so feel free to point me in the right direction if I'm not.
Is anybody growing Roselle? I have read about it on Plantfiles but I'm looking for personal experience. I have grown it in pots but it got zapped when we had an unexpected freeze. I had it for 2 years and it never bloomed.
Thanks,
Lisa
Thai Red Rosella
They grow wild here and are considered a weed. I don't know whether anyone deliberately tries to grow them. But generally plenty of water in a light well draining soil seems to go well with them. I'd guess where they seem to grow really well the soil is slightly on the acidic side rather than higher pH. They die back at the end of the season and new plants are from seed. They flower prolifically and seed prolifically, hence being declared a weed.
What is this? I googled it and found birds, but not plants.
We have several species of parrot that are grouped as "Rosellas", not to be confused with the plant called Rosella, Hibiscus sabdariffa.
As far as them not blooming--can you describe the conditions you had it in (sun/shade, water, fertilizer, etc)? Not getting enough sun would be one possible suspect. And unlike many other plants, hibiscus don't like a lot of phosphorus so if you were feeding it with a bloom booster fertilizer that could actually hurt blooming rather than helping. Not enough water could also be a factor. I'm sure there are other possibilities too.
It looked like it was about to flower right before it froze. I'd been taking it in and out of the house whenever there was supposed to be a freeze, 1 night it froze and that was it.
KJ-I think its in DG plantfiles. The fruits are used as a flavoring and the calyces can be eaten.
It got plenty of sun and heat but our water is very alkaline so that might have been an issue.
Now I'm wondering how early I should start it inside before I plant it out? Maybe this time I'll try it in the ground and see how it goes.
This message was edited Jan 28, 2010 1:39 PM
I still don't find a plant with this name - do you have a link with pictures?
I'll try. I don't know how to do links but let me see what I can find.
Find the link, click on it to bring it up, go to the address bar, click on it to highlight the link, right click and choose 'copy', then come to this thread and IN THE BODY of this link, right click and choose 'paste' - it will appear as a clickable link when you click 'send' at the bottom of the post.
Here are the H. sabdariffa entries from Plant Files--the particular Thai Red cultivar isn't listed, but there are a few others: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=hibiscus&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=sabdariffa&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search
OK I'm giving this a try. I didn't realize it was just a copy and paste thing.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu./newcrop/morton/roselle.html
Hope it works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roselle_(plant)
Here's another I think I've finally got it.
Lisa
This message was edited Jan 28, 2010 1:43 PM
Ohh, that's PRETTY - must try to find one! Thanks for your efforts.
THANK YOU for explaining to me how to do links.
Lisa
Glad I could help - I've always been told 'anything's easy once you know how to do it'!!! LOL
I've never had it explained just copy and paste. If I had known that I would have done it along time ago. I'm better with dirt then computers
LOL - I know what you mean!
I haven't grown yet, but I have nibbled on a leaf (they're edible) and I was dying to make Sorrell tea, so I just ordered some seeds from Onalee.
They only arrived today, so I can't confirm germination rate yet, but her shipping was lightning fast, and her reviews on the Garden Watchdog are top notch.
They are also avaliable from Baker Creek http://rareseeds.com/ that's where I got mine.
I believe these are photo-periodic and so flower only in winter (long nights).
That's very interesting. I read that they flower at the begining of fall Sept.-Oct. As the days get shorter?
Lisa
That's funny because here they flower in the wet season and for a while after. We have very little difference between day and night length throughout the year. There difference between sunrises on the shortest and longest days is about 40 minutes. So the flowering is when the night is the shortest.
We don't have a wet or dry season. Sometimes its really wet (now) sometimes it really dry (past 2 years).
TB how close are you to the equator?
I'm around 12 degrees off the equator. At the equator there's no difference between day lengths during the year.
Possibly if you watered Rosella during the dry season here it'd keep going.
I've heard it referred to as both an annual and a perennial. mine was 2 yrs old when it froze to death and had never bloomed. I'm going to plant some in the ground this year, because if it is considered a weed in Australia it may do well in poor rocky soil.
TB- that seems strange that your day lengths only differ by 40 minutes. When I was in Alaska the days/nights get longer by 30 minutes a week.
I'm really looking foreword to trying this Rosella this year. It better like wet conditions because it seems like that is what we are going to have.
Every year I wonder should I plant crops that like hot, humid weather or hot, arid conditions.
They're perennials but probably not reliably hardy in your zone (Plant Files lists them as zone 9b). They might do OK in some mild winters, but you're far enough out of their comfort zone that I'd suggest bringing them in for the winter.
ec-mine froze so unless I bring it in the house its definately a annual. I meant that I have seen different discriptions in write ups on it.
Lisa
It's not a true annual though, in the sense that an annual is meant to complete its lifecycle and die in one year no matter where you're growing it. It is a tender perennial so in places colder than zone 9 it would behave as an annual and die over the winter, but technically speaking it would still be classified as a perennial. That's probably why you've seen conflicting descriptions of it.