Kitchen Garden Forum

I've just had an email from a gardening centre I occasionally visit offering their members the chance to buy online a limited number of 200 tea plants they have available. Apparently The Tregothnan Estate in Cornwall has recently pioneered commercial tea production in Cornwall and is making available a limited quantity of plants available.

I'm intrigued by this offer but unfortunately don't have the space to take up their offer. These bushes are apparently normally cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical climates with high rainfall but have now been established growing successfully in the UK.

To grow the plants you must have soil that is acidic; the more acidic the soil, the better the tea. The ideal pH is 4.5-6.5 so planting the bush in a pot with ericaceous compost is perfect. The plant needs to be moved to a sheltered position or cool greenhouse in winter and must have protection from frost.

I'm wondering if anybody on here has ever tried growing tea in this country before? Was it successful? We do seem to be seeing new species arrive here in recent years which perhaps arn't normally native. I'm thinking of Gogi berries which I'm not sure have previously been grown in the UK.

Yes, I had a tea plant for years, growing in a pot. It's from the same family as the camellia. I even made tea from the new shoots. It was a bit of a faff but the resulting brew was quite pleasant.
If you can grow camellias in the garden, then no problem. If not, as has been stated, grow them in a pot with the correct compost. The plant looks very similar to the ornamental camellia.(but without the pretty flowers).
Easy to grow. I grew mine about 15 years ago (in Dorset) so it's not a new venture.

I've thought about getting a tea plant since I saw that they could be grown in the UK. One might be OK in the conservatory over winter.

I've just had a look at the Plants4presents web site and they have some very pretty Camelia sinensis (tea plants) in a 3 litre pot for £29. You get to choose a free container and gift card to go with it. Tempted?

By the way, another name for the Goji berry is Duke of Argyle's tea tree as he mistakenly thought that was what he'd got. They've been growing wild in hedgerows in a few places in the UK for years. We found one about 12 years ago growing in a hedgerow near Doncaster.

It was only recently that I found out that my plant's other name was the Goji berry. It has very pretty purple flowers and the small orange berries. They root very easily from cuttings so I think the prices they are charging are a bit extortionate.

Well, if this country is ever blockcaded again as it was in WW2, anybody who buys a plant now will be able to corner the black market for tea

If I had a conservatory or greenhouse I'd be tempted to buy one just for the experience of trying to make my own tea!

With a grape vine, a tobacco plant and a tea plant, the world would be flocking to my door!

Primrose wrote:Well, if this country is ever blockcaded again as it was in WW2, anybody who buys a plant now will be able to corner the black market for tea

Once they've mastered the processes involved

http://darjeelingnews.net/tea_processin ... eling.html