Explore one of the most unique fruits for warm climate gardens: roselle, also known as Jamaica sorrel or Florida cranberry. In this video, I’ll share everything you need to know about growing and harvesting roselle, a fruit that adds a tart, cranberry-like flavor to recipes and thrives in warm climates. From planting tips to harvesting the bright red calyces, this guide will show you how to bring this strange yet delicious fruit to your garden!
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29 Comments
Yes! I love my Roselle, too! ❤️
Ours have taken FOREVER to flower! The plants are huge but just started to get some tiny buds last week. Still no flowers. 🙁
So what kind of light do they like or prefer? I have the seeds and have been waiting for you to do something on this flower.
Wow… I never even heard about this plant…. I saw them in Florida, but never asked what they were…. Now I’ll know…. Thank you… I love to learn…. By the way I’m a weird woman, I like spiders 😂😂😂…. But we don’t have poisonous spiders here up north 😅…. ❤ God Bless…
Interesting plant. I do love different kinds of tea, so I may have to add this to my list of things to try in the garden. Thank you! Keep growing! ♥
The best edible plant that thriving in the horrible humid climate like mine …
This is my second year growing roselle in Marion county. I planted 8 plants this year and harvested over 30 lbs of calyx! They do like to have a lot of room. I planted them about 6 ft apart, but it was still too close. I removed the seed pods with an apple corer and dehydrated most for tea (a life-time supply) and also made some roselle jam.
This was very helpful! I’m going to go pick some now 😁
I was asking my brother in law about this plant because he grows it and makes jam. He sent me this video and found out your in florida. I'm in edgewater. He in south carolina lol.
SO DELICIOUS! 😋
This is what we call Sorrell in Jamaica. It's a favorite here. We use it a lot during christmas time. Try some jamaican sorrell juice you will love it, the way we make it.
I love growing Roselle. It pushes right thru the Summer heat. It always looks pretty and i love hibiscus tea. I even followed a recipe on YouTube for hibiscus jelly. But i will leave out the chunks next time. But what i didn't think sbout was using the seed part inside the calyx to thicken a liquidy jelly and also msking iced tea. I have a lot of it which i dehydrated but also didn't realize it would dry out on its own within 2 weeks. I happen to have some on my counter now which i will just let dry on their own. The plants just keep producing and it is very good for you too. Mine grew back this year. I wasn't going to plant them this year because i still have them from last year but they did grow and the hurricane blew one branch over but they're still growing, so i just let them be. Thanks for all the great info.
Your neighbor in Citrus County.
Florida Gardener zone 9a
I absolutely love roselle. My bushes/trees got beat up during Hurricane Helene and Milton. I did get a wonderful harvest. I had 4 in raised beds and they grew over 7 ft tall and I harvested between 500 – 700 calyxes. I dug one of the roots out today and boy what a tough root. I just started some seeds tonight to see if I can grow them in pots through the winter then put them in the ground in March. I'm in zone 11a SW Florida. A tip for taking them apart is to use an apple core place under the bottom of the calyxe twist and the whole peddle comes off use the side of the core to slice it off.
I have never grown okra
I love hibiscus tea, but I can't with the spiders…🤣🤣🤣
I'm the helper gardener in the house, but am still expecting obedience to my not very successful directive that all edible flowers and certain fruits be soaked outside. Normally it's ants that crawl all over the kitchen, but if we had multiple spiders 😵
I'm intrigued. Never had Roselle-Sorrell. Where have they grown best for you? South facing with constant sun or AM sun and afternoon shade?
your already harvesting? Im in brevard and my flowers are just now starting to grow. haven't even had flowers bloom yet
Super helpful!
Did your plants survive the hurricane?
So much information here!
Watched to very end & I was intrigued by the mason jar pitcher lid. Where did you find it? Please do share!
Hi Petrina, I was wondering for the ones you have planted in ground, how big did they get? I grew mine in a pot this year and I had some calyxs growing but didn’t get them picked and the plant got destroyed from Milton. I was thinking about planting them along my fence where I had regular hibiscus growing that also got destroyed from Milton, but didn’t know how big they might get. I also planted mine way late this year, but the flowers are so pretty, I thought they would be a good replacement for the other hibiscus and be edible, just not sure if there is room. There’s only about 2 feet from the fence to the pool deck there.
My first year growing a roselle and I was very surprise how big it grew. I have found baby tree frogs while cleaning. I do the taking apart outside. I love making teas and drying the fruit.
I am planning to grow roselle next season. Cant wait. Thanks for this video. Very helpful.
1st year growing these massive plants. 1 have 4 that survived the winds, played over and kept growing. I am so excited to try all these new things with the harvest. Mine are almost to the open flower stage.
That is the reason I dread harvesting Roselle,.. the spiders!.. What I do that helps me, is I use a clear plastic container filled with water and put the harvested Roselle in it. Through out the harvesting, I stir the Roselle in the water. Doing this has got the critters out for me. The clear plastic container also helps me see the critters in it or even hiding under the lip of the container. No critters in the house so far when doing this! PS. You handled that spider on your table well😆 And I want to try that tea😄
I have so much roselle I don’t know what to do with it! I made a tea with my second batch. Gave my electrician a plant and now I have a super large plant loaded.
It's leaves are very tasty. In india we make curry of it ..
Yay! Thank you for this! I’ve been wanting to grow roselle and finally got some seeds, I had no idea there’d be such a big crop. Now I know what to do with them. I’m in North central FL.