5th Annual Roselle Festival — Hawthorne, Florida

I recently saw social media posts from Floridians excited about the fall harvest of their roselle plants. Local residents enjoy growing roselle in order to harvest the cup-like structure beneath the petals of the roselle flower, called the calyx. They can then make dried calyx into drinks, jams, sauces, syrups, and natural dyes.

Along with this year’s harvest, the 5th Annual Roselle Festival will be celebrating the roselle plant and all its tasty products!

The festival will take place on Oct. 17, 2026, from 1-5:30 p.m. at Frog Song Organics in Hawthorne, Florida. Admission is free and donations are welcome. Enjoy live music and family-friendly activities while you take in this wonderful plant in all its glory. Activities include picking fresh ruby-red roselle hibiscus straight from the fields, guided farm tours, and hands-on agricultural workshops. The festival will also include farm-fresh food, tastings, demonstrations, and a local makers market.

Roselle has a tart flavor similar to a cranberry. The calyces harvested from the flower are a brilliant dark crimson due to a high concentration of the pigment anthocyanin. When made into tea, it turns a beautiful fuchsia. The drink is full of vitamin C and antioxidants. Regular, moderate consumption of roselle tea can lower blood pressure, improve good and bad cholesterol levels, support immune function and aid liver and kidney function.

In places like Florida, roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) refers to a robust edible hibiscus plant in the Malvaceae family. This family of plants includes cotton, okra and the marshmallow bush with pink blooms in Egans Creek Greenway in the summer. All of these plants have similar flowers and botanists widely believe they share an origin in Africa. In Nigeria, roselle is the main ingredient in a favorite spiced beverage called zobo.

Roselle was cultivated in Sudan at least 6,000 years ago. Once humans started traversing the globe, this versatile, hardy plant was spread worldwide into suitable climates with plenty of sunlight and well-drained soils — perfect for most of Central and South Florida.

Roselle is heat-tolerant and considered naturalized in many parts of the world. It stands 5 to 7 feet tall, has reddish-green leaves, bright red stems, and a deep root system. The fiber from the plant’s stems can be made into cordage or rope, similar to hemp and the protein-rich seeds can be roasted and eaten.

Many Florida gardeners believe roselle is a Florida native, likely because it has been here for hundreds of years and is highly successful. It thrives in Florida below the frost line in the U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 9 and 10, flourishing in a warm subtropical climate.

In Nicaragua and Mexico, I was introduced to a beverage called agua de jamaica or flor de jamaica. This drink is always served as a sweet iced tea. Jamaica is the exact same plant as roselle, which is also called sorrel in the Caribbean and gongura in parts of India where the calyces are made into tangy curries. In African American culture, sweet drinks like zobo, made from roselle, are enjoyed in modern celebrations, reflecting deep historical ties to Africa’s culinary heritage.

I do not usually buy agua de jamaica when I am in Mexico, Nicaragua, or at a taco stand in Florida because the drink is made with lots of added sugar, like traditional southern sweet tea. I like to make pitchers of hibiscus iced tea at home and add just the right amount of sweetness! To order the dried roselle calyces for hot or iced tea, shop for hibiscus flower or hibiscus tea.

This plant demonstrates perfectly how the natural world can provide for humans. Wrapped up in this glamorous drought-resistant weed is a suite of very tasty beverages, jams and jellies, textile products, edible young leaves, and nutrient-rich seeds. Easy to cultivate and very useful; what a great plant!