Worth knowing:
The black and green tea on your breakfast table comes from a plant belonging to the Camelia family, more precise it comes from the dried and fermented leaves of the Camelia sinensis. The evergreen shrub can grow up to one meter when cultivated in a tub. The bark of its young branches starts out with a reddish colour and white hairs and, over time, becomes bald with a yellowish-grey colour. The final buds are silvery and haired as well. Its creamy flowers with the narrow arranged golden yellow filaments in the center, creating a lovely contrast to the dark green shiny leaves of the Tea Plant.
Natural Location:
The original habitat of the Tea Plant is Myanmar, India and southern China.
Cultivation:
Seed propagation indoors is possible throughout the year. To increase the germinability, you should place the seeds for about 12 hours in warm water for priming. Then, plant the seeds about 1 cm deep in moist potting compost and cover the seed container with clear film to prevent the earth from drying out. Don’t forget to make some holes in the clear film and take it every second or third day completely off for about 2 hours. That way you avoid mold formation on your potting compost. Place the seed container somewhere bright and warm with a temperature between 20°C and 25° Celsius and keep the earth moist, but not wet. Usually it takes three to seven weeks until germination.
Place:
Tea Plants can be kept indoors in a bright spot throughout the year. Between May and October you can also move your plant to a semi-shaded and wind-protected place outside in the garden or on your balcony.
Care:
Best for cultivating a Tea Plant is rhododendron soil mixed with 10% sand. See that you use lime-deficient water and avoid waterlogging in the saucer. Between April and September it is advisable to give fertilizer for tub plants every two weeks. The Tea Plant grows naturally compact and well-branched, so a regular pruning is not necessary. However, after it developed five new leaves each time you may cut off the upper two and the bud. That way your plant becomes even stronger and starts flowering already after two to three years.
During the winter:
The Tea Plant should be kept in a bright spot with a temperature between 10° and 15° Celsius during hibernation. If it is placed somewhere in the living space at room temperature during the winter, it will continue to grow and has to be taken care off accordingly, concerning watering, fertilizing and probably pruning.
Picture credits:
- © © Armin Kübelbeck - CC-BY-SA-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Rennett Stowe - CC-BY-2.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
- © AxelBoldt - Public domain - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/
- © Armin Kübelbeck - CC-BY-SA-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
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