Roselle

The roselle plant is a member of  the Hibiscus family  ( also known as Hibiscus Sabdariffa) My friendly neighbor gave me 4 baby plants grown from seeds about a year ago. Initially one plant died, but the other three plants grew well, and since I was able to propagate new plants from their seeds.  I notice that this roselle plant is very productive but has only a short healthy  life time ( a year plus only)  Only after a couple of months, the plant starts to produce flowers and the fruits developed shortly after. With the few plants I have (about 5 right now), I am able to harvest fruits at least once a fortnight.  Recently with the heavy rain and cooler weather, there was so much fruits, I  was able to send some over to my neighbours as well.  The plant should not be allowed to grow too tall as the stems are not hardy. Normally I use some stick or bars to support the plant. However after harvesting the fruits I trimmed the plant. The side branches will grow soon enough. 

This roselle plant is a beautiful plant.  The fruits are so attractive, being deep blood red.  The fruits are used to make cool refreshing drinks. It is nice to drink  the juice chilled.  One can read  about the benefits of this plant  from the articles put up in the internet. Aside from the fruits, the leaves can be used to cook curry. At least this was what my neighbour told me.  It gives a sweetish, sourish taste to the curry apparently. I have not tried doing that yet.  I know some people make jam and jelly out of the fruit. I would also like to try doing that one day.

 These  are the roselle flowers . Like most  hibiscus flowers, they are  showy, huge and attractive, but drops after just one day.