Florida Cranberry (Hibiscus sabdariffa)
Available only in the Spring!
Sow Exotic's best-selling plant is BACK! The Florida Cranberry is an annual fruiting hibiscus grown in the spring that produces tasty and nutritious fruit in the fall. Because Florida Cranberry is an annual, we're only able to carry them for a short period of time.
Florida Cranberry is grown around the world and is known by many names, including Roselle, Jamaican Sorrel, Fleur de Jamaica or Gongura. It's loved for its edible leaves and succulent bright red flower calyxes. The culinary "fruit" is actually the enlarged flower calyx. It has a crisp apple-like texture and a tart cranberry-like flavor. When brewed as a tea, it has a beautiful bright red color.
Florida Cranberry is an amazing plant to grow in your edible landscape, especially here in Florida where it has a rich history as an original homesteaders plant. It grows very easily without irrigation in any soil type, yielding many pounds of highly nutritious and delicious fruit. It is virtually drought tolerant and disease resistant.
The fruit has many uses! Of course they can easily be eaten fresh, but also dehydrated for teas and fruit leather, distilled, fermented into beer and wine and kombucha, made into juices or syrups, or used in floral arrangements, and the list goes on. Medicinally, Florida Cranberry is proven to lower blood pressure.
Plant Type:
Annual Fruiting Shrub, Medicinal Herb
Harvest Season:
Leaves: Summer through Fall
Fruit aka Flower Calyxes: Fall, early Winter
Mature Size:
Up to 4-6 ft tall and 2-4 ft wide
Soil & Moisture:
Florida Cranberry can tolerate nearly any soil condition and is somewhat drought tolerant. It likes rich, moist, sandy, well-draining soil.
Light Requirements:
Full Sun, Part Shade. Performs best with morning sun and afternoon shade.
Growth Rate:
Fast, Very Fast
Zone Hardiness:
Grown annually outdoors Zones 4+
Our Florida Cranberry is grown from seed and capable of harvest within the growing season.
