Camellia Sinensis Plant

I did it! I bought a Camellia Sinensis Plant! What is that you ask? It is the common plant used for black, green and oolong teas. The same leaves are used to create these different types of tea, but the way you dry the leaves is how the different teas are made.

There’s certain areas that this plant grows best in, which is not my house in the winter. I will have to bring the plant inside every year once it starts getting cold. There are a lot of tips on how to make sure this plant grows tall and strong. Websites say that you should fertilize it a ton, water it a lot (but wait for it to dry a bit on the top before flooding it with water again), make sure there’s holes at the bottom for proper drainage, and a number of other long drawn out directions. What am I going to do? Wing it. Yep! I’m going to wing it. Let nature take its course. Allow the sun and water to do it’s duty and pray that I don’t kill it within the first year. Then I’ll probably read how to take proper care of this fun plant. They say you can’t use the leaves for tea until after the third year. You have to wait for it to bloom before you can use its young leaves for tea. So it looks like I’m in it for the long haul. Or at least I hope I am ~bites nails~