Please understand that there are 3 different tea products from the plant: Black, Green, and White. Making each of them is straighforward provided you have the kitchen equipment.
Not me.
No. More like a once-per-week supply, depending on the variety of tea you make.
In your environment, treat them as you would roses.
Minor quibble from the grouchy old guy (me): The latin name is “Camellia sinensis” - with the genus name capitalized and the species name in lower case.
I’ve seen sellers with seedlings of Camellia sinensis of different origins; e.g., Korean, Sochi, Chinese, etc. Whether or not the seedlings come true to type is questionable.
I tried growing tea at some point. It seemed to be doing OK until the deer found it - they loved it to death. It seemed to be the #1 plant on their list. I am in zone 7a, it was OK cold-wise for me but you need to get the most hardy varieties if you are in zone 6. See http://www.camforest.com/Camellia_sinensis_s/34.htm for a good list, this is where I got mine. They also have growing directions etc.
I’ve been playing with this idea, but I have settled on growing Yaupon Holly instead. It’s native to North America and seems less finicky after reading people’s experiences.
Hi! There are people here that grow camenia sinensis for the dry flowers. This tea made with dry flowers have the same health benefits as green tea but without tahine. I will buy one too…
I grow tea in zone 7b. I’ve been growing it about ten years. This year is the first year I’ve seen cold damage. The temps went down to 8 degrees. It burnt many of the leaves but I see new shoots putting out since it’s began warming up here. I grow seedlings selected from an abandoned Lipton’s tea plantation in Alabama. I’m in the foothills of South Carolina. There is a tea plantation in the SC mountains that has done well at zone 7a. I haven’t talked to grower this year after the Artic blast. They had near zero temps.
As far as soil, I grow them in the same acidic soil as I grow my southern highbush blueberries.
I drink Barry’s tea from Ireland. I love it and it is very cheap. I spend my effort on other things.
It seems like it would take a lot of tea plants and a lot of work to get enough tea to drink. Don’t you have to age it too?
Since it’s getting colder it’s time for the camellia trees to bloom. Camellia is a common flowering bush in my area, though they aren’t the sinensis kind.
I do however have two small camellia sinensis bushes, though I’ve never pruned them for harvest to make tea.
