I’ve been given a tropical hibiscus plant from my grandpa. It’s huge, 4ft tall. I’m not generally into house plants but this is a bit sentimental. No one else wanted it and it’s probably a 15+ year old plant. My grandma passed away several years ago and grandpa is turning 96. He has a ton of house plants and understandably is cutting back on them.
Anyhow… It’s got these huge beautiful flowers! They only last about 2 days. One opened yesterday and 5 or 6 look to open in a day or two.
I hadn’t thought much about it til the other day my boyfriend asked if it would make seeds. Well, I’d need to hand pollinate it… and look up if it can self pollinate or not…
So needless to say, yesterday I did hand pollinate the flower and I’m going to do so with this bunch coming in. From a bit of research it should be able to self pollinate ok and can have from like 1 to 50 seeds per flower/seed pod.
At this point I’m mostly curious if I’ll get seeds at all. I really don’t have space for a bunch of house plants.
BUT! This has got me curious about hibiscus! Now I understand there is tropical hibiscus, like this one. Pretty but no smell to it. Then hardy hibiscus which will go dormant into fall and survives winter.
Boyfriend is really into teas. And hibiscus tea is from Hibiscus sabdariffa. Which can maybe grow as an annual?
So now I’m all curious! Do you grow hibiscus?
Do you make tea with it? And if so, which type is it?
Does anyone grow/has grown the sabdariffa? Reliable seed sources for it?
I can send some roselle seeds (hibiscus sabdariffa) if you would like. I grow it as an annual here in Kansas as Christmas presents for some friends who drink it. The survivors grow without any inputs in my clay soil.
I don’t remember if I put any in the seed box. I had planned to, but did they actually get packed?
Rose of sharon is very popular in my neighborhood, and I could save you some seeds next time the pods on some of those bushes are open. They’re hardy, drought tolerant, and edible.
Oooo, I had rose of Sharon trees in my old house. And they are so beautiful. Can one make tea from all these not-true-hibiscus? Or am I thinking wrongly?
I killed a tropical hibiscus, it never bloomed after the first summer, and implanted it out under some trees. It grew happily, then the one cold night in Feb killed it.
Rose of Sharon is a true hibiscus, just not the type that is normally used for tea. But my understanding is that all parts are edible, just like the tropicals.
I’ve pollinated first flower on 3/6. Second flower on 3/7. Today did two, 3/8. And three look to open tomorrow. I’ve marked them all. So 7 flowers hand pollinated and we’ll see if I get seed pods. Seems like enough of them that I’ll end up with something even if some fail.
Didn’t occur to me until now… it looks like the pods take 6 to 10 weeks!!! April 20 to May 20! Uugghhh!
Uugghhh!
