“botanically classified into one of three varieties”
Thank you Richard - that explains a lot! Your reply explains why my 4 look so different. Nurseries don’t make that distinction and an anal gardener like me needs to know ;). Thanks for the lead! Now I have more to google with 
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Thank you for the link to Camilla Forest Nursery. That opened up a whole world for me.
I’ve not meet one person in Maryland who knew this plant grows well here. Now I see that … 20-30 varieties are available! Thanks again!
My two tea plants are in bloom now.
I made tea a couple of years ago. I tried bruising and allowing oxidation before drying. I don’t remember the outcome much. It must not have been very memorable.
I’d heard deer really like to eat them, but mine seem to be mostly left alone inside a cattle panel enclosed area.
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Are they cold hardy to your area? I hadn’t thought to grow tea plants, I grow lemon balm to make a tea from it. Loquat I’ll eventually try to make a tea from and several other things also. But I didn’t know tea was so hardy
Says theres a range from zone 7-9 depending on the variety, but most can handle down to around 25 F. Young leaves die to freezes, but overall the plant survives fine.
One of the only US tea gardens (plantations) is in Charleston, SC area, ~zone 9a.
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These tea seem more cold hardy than my loquat on quince right next to them. I think I have varieties chosen for cold. One Russian and I don’t remember the other, maybe from One Green World.
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Wow more cold hardy than loquat is wild to me, mine have never been damaged by any temps, I think 14 is the low they got. Maybe I’ll look into them, do they get super big?
The “Assam” and “Cambodian” types are less hardy than the Chinese. The “Assam” were trees in the wild while the other two were shrubs. All three are now landraces.
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mine are below 4 feet at over 10 years but I’ve been terribly stingy with nitrogen apparently.
Based on my emails, I think its from 2014 and these:
Guangzhou Tea
Sochi Russian Tea
I think I have Sochi at my old house too that’s been in the ground several years longer than that and probably had significant drought stress in the summer.
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It’s my understanding that you can make tea from fig leaves, raspberry leaves, mint, and New Jersey tea leaves without caffeine with varying flavor profiles.
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Sochi is an advanced city with winters tempered by the Black Sea. It is barely in Russia and historically was not. This article is fairly accurate:
Thanks. Never heard of NJ tea leaves. I have a good friend bought me some black raspberry seeds but they’re duds. Also afraid to grow them because of SWD.
But the “Sochi” Tea cultivar was created IN a Russia Breeding Program.
I’ll agree that it was created there in Sochi. I have studied their publications. Based on genetic evidence, I’ve contested the results of this one: