PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Tea Plant
Camellia sinensis
Grow your own tea! A neat evergreen camellia with small white autumn flowers; pick the young tips to make green or black tea. Needs acid soil.
At a glance: harvest in May.
When to plant and care for it
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Tea Plant: what it needs
- Light
- Part shade · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Keep moist with rainwater
- Soil
- Acid (ericaceous), moist but well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 1 m
- Height
- 1–2 m
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- Ericaceous feed in spring
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 7–9
Step by step
- On planting day
Plant
Plant at the same depth as in its pot, 1 m apart, in a sunny, sheltered spot. Firm in.
- 0–1 days after “Plant”
Water In
Water well, then keep just moist while it settles in.
- 30–51 days after “Water In”
First Light Harvest
Once it is growing strongly, snip a few sprigs — never more than a third of the plant at once.
Every year
- AprilSpring Feed
Feed with an ericaceous feed as new growth starts.
- MayPluck Tea Tips
Pick "two leaves and a bud" from each shoot tip. Wither, roll and dry them for green tea. Repeat every few weeks until September.
Starts from year 3.
- OctoberIn Flower
Small, scented white flowers.
- DecemberWinter Protection
Protect young plants with fleece in hard frosts; move pots into a sheltered spot.
