Anybody grown Camellia Sinensis

Today I retired, my colleagues gave me three Camellia sinensis as a leaving present.
I have bored them for years about a wide variety of plants so probably appropriate.
So any tips/advice please.

 

Congratulations.

Tea. grow your own.

 

Congratulations @NigelJ , welcome to the "permanent gardening leave club," as I call it. I only have ornamental Camellia, but I don't think they have very different requirements. They prefer slightly acid soil, but mine are directly in London. Clay and are generally OK. I do use an ericaceous liquid feed on them.

 

Congratulations @NigelJ - you will find you don't have as much time as you expected!
I seem to remember reading that someone has planted it to grow UK sourced tea. Might be worth investigating to see where and how

 

Retired lets party.. have a sleep in especially on Mondays lol

Spruce

 

There was a place growing lots of it in the UK on TV a while ago,cant remember where exactly but somewhere down SW.

 

I believe they like the same as Azaleas. Rhodos and Gardenias. I have the first and last but I cannot advise on growing them there.

I think @Jenny namaste grows them successfully on the South coast.

 

I'm thinking ericaceous soil and not getting too dry in summer and as usual shelter from the cold easterlies.
The plants came from Tregothnan near Truro where they have been growing tea since 2005. There is also a tea plantation near Harrogate and several in Scotland.
Apparently flowers in autumn/winter with scented white flowers.

 

Advice from an 'older' person.
Try to work everyday. More hours =more reward.
Realise you will need more money as you will have time to spend it.
Never put off to tomorrow-it may not come.
Think you are (just)18, but know where you are going.

 

I am either going down hill rapidly; or to hell in a handbasket.

 

Interested how it turns out, im suprised tea isnt already a traditional plant in the UK considering our apetite for it! Not sure how they make black tea from green though.
I believe it does like ericacious soil around ph 5.0 like blueberries but i dont know how this works in the ground, I think you need to keep checking it every year as the acidic minerals disperse.

We had 2 cammelia japonica in pots, one died from beetle larvae of some kind eating the roots but the other is still okay. Lovely flowers but dont last long, its about 1.5 meters tall now. We have some flowers we froze we put on nasi goreng once as a garnish. I suspect it needs some acidifier, we have this cheap PH tape that seems to work. I mixed soil with neutral water and the readings were realistic.

 

Once the leaves are picked, they are withered until limp, rolled to break up the cell structure, left in a warm place to oxidise until black, then it is dried down to 5% moisture.
(thanks to Tregothnan for this info)
Ericaceous soil definitely, doesn't need pH 5 typically 6 to 7.
I think it has been grown in the UK for a long time but as a flowering plant and only recently did somebody think of dedicating sufficient space to a plantation and see if it was financially viable.
The individual flowers don't last long, although some varieties last better than others; I find the whole plant flowers for a 4 to 8 weeks. I have 3 of them in the ground the oldest is about 20 years old; they get mulched with pine needles or composted pine needles which helps the pH.
Measuring the pH with tape after shaking with water probably gives you better results than most of the meters available.

 

Would be fun to try making it

I tried to find some papers on optimal ph for tea but couldnt find many good tests, though I did find that most tea plantations have a pH around 4.5. It may be it is grown here because other crops dont tolerate it rather than it being optimal. Most of the chinese papers claimed around 5.0-5.5 was optimal but they were just quoting people and not investigating it.
The westland ericacious soil I tested was about 5.5-6.0 so that seems right. Ill see how it has stacked up after these years in my cammelias pot.

 

Congratulations Nigel, I retired 3 years ago next week and have never been so busy.
It looks like you are already on the right track for growing tea and Paignton is not that far off Tregothnan except that they are a bit back from the sea away from the salt winds which may be your problem but that is not insurmountable. Best of luck!