Thai Red Rosella

This isn't a vegetable but I posted on another forum and nobody has responded so I thought I'd try here. I have read about it in the plant files. But has anybody actually grown it. I had one in a pot but it froze unexpectedly. I had it 2 years and it never flowered. The flowers are used as flavoring.
Thank you,
Lisa

Hi Lisa ~ I'm not sure this is the same exact but I've grown Hibiscus sabdariffa ~ Roselle.

Mine didn't bloom till Sept and produced the seed pods in Oct. I only grew them one year. If you are interested in reading, I saved a good deal of info in my journal and a couple of photos of it too. Some of it useful and some not. http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/148684/

Hey Pod, That's the one, I'll read your journal when I get a chance. I think its funny that we have both, once again, grown something obscure. I did get responses on the tropical plants forum so thats helping too. Did you start yours inside first, I think this time I will try growing some in the ground. It was a beautiful plant.
Lisa

It is a pretty bloom ~ it has been a year or two ago but if I remember, I started it indoors. It requires heat to produce and takes a while. I found it was a real aphid attractor and haven't grown it since although I did save some seed. I don't know if it is still viable.

My Crown of Thorns are doing great. All I did was let the cuttings "dry" for about a week, then I stuck them in a pot with some moist potting soil. That is it, they are already getting new leaves. I started 6 plumeria cuttings also but with those I used a rooting hormone. They seem to be doing well too. How is your plumeria cutting?

DOA ~ lol I think it is doomed.
Glad to know how easy the COTs are. Thanks, I will try doing cuttings later this spring.

It was mad at you for throwing it in the compost pile.
How is your Stapelia scitula doing?
Did you get some Mortgage Lifter tomato seed? If not, you can dmail me.
Lisa

Your Stapelias are rooting well, thank you. They should really take off come springtime.

I still haven't decided on the Mortgage Lifter tomatoes or the Parks Whopper or... If I try some it will only be one or two plants. The large ones are more to DHs liking and he is not to eat too many with excess potassium problems.

You would think the plant gods would smile on me for tossing that stick into the compost, but no way. LOL

I'll send you a couple ML seeds if thats OK. That way you can grow a couple without buying a whole packet. They did really well here and while all of them were shaped like beefsteak the ones I picked during the heat of the summer weren't huge, but come fall I had 30+ 1 lbers

Lisa ~ thank you, I will try them but only a few. I will send a stamped envelope if you would like? I will try those tomatoes this summer and shall owe you one!

Off to stoke the GH stove one more time before bed. It is sleeting lightly here right now.

You don't need to send me a SASE I can afford the 44 cents. Besides I offered. Im using my exhusband's office (in the detached garage) as my greenhouse and it has a seperate HVAC unit. I just set the temp and its really inexpensive to run I'm hunting for used florescent light fixture now. I think I'm in a little over my head.
I was going to ask you what the weather was like at your place here its just colder then H...
I'll get those in the mail.
Lisa

COLD here ~ Grrrr!! We never got out of the 30°s today and the GH didn't get to warm up much. We got home late from work and I just got the fire built and am watching the temperature start to climb out there on the remote thermometer. We can't have a lot more really cold days left this year can we?

BTW, do you still have my address?

Yes, I still have your address. We got in the 50's here and it was sunny but a little windy. Last year we had a freeze at the beginning of April. I give up with the weather.

50°s? A heat wave! 8 ))

Today it didn't get above 34*. I thought the news said it was supposed to be 50 something and sooo gloomy it took all my energy to just get off the couch.

Wow! I hope that is not coming my way. We were sunny here in the low 50s. I went to the GH to water and it was bumping 80° in there. I could have curled up and lazed the afternoon away like this little girlie did.

She's so cute. That's how I feel about my heatmat. I wish I could just lay on it.

You can always depend on cats to find the most comfortable place. Mine love the greenhouse too.

LOL Lisa ~ I wouldn't fit on the heatmat. That is cute...

I like cats in the gh except when they want to hunt the lizards I have caught and put in there. They tend to upset the applecart chasing them around.

Right now, I am working for a promotion to her job!

How do you stop the cats from using the pots as litter boxes? Mine sometimes go in my houseplants even when they have a litter box Wow, the temp just went up to 40. If it doesnt get sunny soon I wont be able to move. I'm so solar powered. I'll get the ML seeds in the mail tomorrow anything else I can send along?
Brady's stinky garden is doing great he told me to remind you that he likes the smell!

I am surprised your son hasn't eaten all of his "stinky" garden! LOL

I've not had a problem with the cats using pots for potties. I have a 14 YO male cat that sprays. I could gladly wring his neck. He has not christened the GH yet. If I have any say, I'll not have another male cat or dog!!!


And it better warm up here! All I want to do is eat. I am fixing a pot of stew, a loaf of bread, coleslaw and baking a lemon pound cake. I guess I'll take it to work and call it a Happy Groundhog Day cake.

Try sprinkling a little potting soil on top of the K Litter? Litter must be tidied daily, just like you don't neglect to flush. Not commenting on -your- Box, but sometimes folks don't keep them immaculate.

Thanks Mola- The litter box is clean, their getting better at using it though. But my potted plants get initiated every winter until they get the litter box figured out. I wouldn't want to go out in the 30* weather to go either.

Maybe a lot of little sticks in the flower pots.

I was nervous you'd be offended by my post. Thanks!

Heh, heh, heh. Like this? http://www.gardeners.com/Safe-Cat-Deterrent/YardPests_DogsCats,31-954,default,cp.html

Now, to design 12" long pitchfork tines to circle the pots so male dogs can't help with the watering. 8 )

Little electric fences.

Oooo.

Oooo ~ ouch! I have witnessed that done by a city dog. The country dog standing watching it all went to snickering.

snicker, snicker.

Once a friend was changing a flat tire. He knew he had to be careful about that hot wire just behind him. But he did lean back a little too far and where his shirt had ridden up, there was a little bare skin. Pop! He did a perfect backflip over the low fence, into the field where a huge bull had been curiously watching the changing of the tire. He instantly did another high jump.

We were laughing so hard we all almost fell down.

Pod, your seeds are on their way.
Malo-I don't think you can offend me. Sometimes the truth hurts. I think I finally got the cats/indoor plant thing figured out.
At one time we used hot wire to keep the livestock (large pets) on their side of the property. I had 2 ferral hogs and when their wet snouts hit that wire there was a sound that I had never heard before. The wire worked though and they never did it again.
Lisa

Lisa ~ it seems like I just read your post and the seeds have already arrived! Thanks much... it is my intention to start them this weekend. Getting slower by the day here...

They did get there quick. I kept my spring plants going all summer and ML produced even when it was super hot. As soon as the temp got cooler they put on like crazy. I had 4 plants and they produced perfect fruit that was med-large, some were huge. Of course Brady picked many before they got ripe completely but he thought they tasted fine.
If we don't get some sun soon I'm going to be moving so slow I'll be going backwards. Did you get much rain? Everything is so muddy, manure and mud are not a good smelling combination.
Lisa

We ARE muddy! I don't have livestock other than pets so don't have to deal with the manure odor. I would hate having livestock to tend to when the weather is like this although I resisting an urge for chickens.

We have an acquaintance that will only eat his tomatoes green & raw. When they begin to turn, he calls them rotten. I've not tried them green yet. That just seems like an unnatural act.

I read thru your Market Growers thread and that is some interesting information everyone had to offer. I am not a grower so stayed out of the converstion but wondered what kind of a profit margin was left after everyones' expenses. I can only imagine the hourly wage is low for such labor intensive work. One must enjoy what they are doing.

Looking forward to the ML tomatoes and hoping it quits raining long enough this weekend to plant a plum tree and do some more fencing. I am thinking I want to plant southern blueberries across the back yard when I get the fence redone.

I hope you get your planting done. I would like to put in some cole crop starts this weekend but I'll probably wait because its supposed to get cold again next week. I'll have to buy them and I haven't done that in years.
The MG thread does have a bunch of good info. I'm really not sure about the profit margin thing. With the economy the way it is, and the movement to buying local and in season, there has got to be money made or at least make a living. There are people/companies out there that do. I like that my hours are somewhat flexiable and I almost feel an obligation to grow things. I have the space and I just can't help but grow things.
I didn't start this way, first I gave away the extras then I started getting orders it just kinda grew.
It just seems like every gardening activity has me hunched over, I feel like I need to stand up staraight for a while.
THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE CONVERSATION, EVEN THOUGH IT MIGHT SEEM LIKE IT, FEEL FREE TO JOIN IN.
Lisa

LOL, I am considering tomatoes for a small crop next winter. In the meanttime, there seems to be a shortage of Desert Roses for the houseplant trade. Not edible, ridiculously slow growing...

Lisa, grow pole beans!

Lisa, is there anything that you are growing that will climb? I would take cattle panels and stake them with fence posts to grow in an upward direction.
This was a cool arch used to grow beans on a cattle panel. Photo scanned from a magazine although I have seen this done locally.

Wow! What would the bean vines do when they got to the top? Crawl around? I always thought it funny when someone would add taller poles or sticks or something so that the vines could head on up into the sky.

On the arch or a panel, they will grow up and over and down.
On the arch, the beans hang down so you can walk underneath and harvest them with ease and in the shade.
That is... if and when the sun ever shines again. 8 )

Thanks for the suggestions, but that will have to wait until it gets warmer.

I grow this in my garden and it is like a weed - popping up everywhere it is not suppose to be. I started it from one tiny plant I purchased at an herb show years ago and have never been able to get rid of it. It will probably die back in extreme cold, although here it just quits growing in the winter. In the spring I have little baby plants all over the place. I'm not sure what I'll have this year after our extremely cold winter, but if I have them this year, you are more than welcome to them.

Mommystuff ~ Thanks for that offer. If they do pop up, you should try potting a few up and advertise for sale on Marketplace. I'd bet you would be surprised at the sales. Sounds like an unusual winter all over the place!