Mary, thought I remembered reading of tea being grown commercially again in the Carolinas so googled and found a good bit of information. You may already have read it...

Also, there is a Viburnum setigerum that I had in a former garden which is not only a beautiful shrub but I understand has been used for tea, though I never tried it.

I'm curious too and will be hoping you get some one who is actually growing/using the Camellia to respond. josh

Here is a link that might be useful: Tea in Carolinas

I grew this when I lived over in Albany, GA (zone 8a). Grow it just like you would any other camellia. I never did use it for tea, just for the novelty of growing it. You can get them from Tallahassee Nursery on Thomasville Road in Tallahassee.

Just for your interest, I lived in coastal SC for many years and had the opportunity to visit the tea farm outside of Charleston several times. You have NEVER tasted anything like a cold glass of tea that has been brewed from leaves that are hours or days old, instead of the several months we are used to. American Classic Tea is sold all over the place and I sure do recommend it! Any other tea tastes bitter to me now ;-(

The farm is a fascinating place to visit, if you ever get the chance.

Has anyone gotten some tea plants going in the past decade?

I don't understand the silence. Everybody drinks tea! It must be a secret.

I agree Tiffany, I haven't seen any at all. You think somebody would make a good effort to put out the plants because labor intensive for some isn't as much labor for others if you figure out the easier ways to do it. I for one would love to pick some new shoots because I like green tea and the thought of having organic green tea that didn't ever have artificial ferilizer on the plant in the spring sounds pretty awesome, or black kumqaut or lemon honey tea in the fall... mmm

Checking the botanical name, Camellia sasanqua, there doesn't seem to be a difference between a regular camellia and tea plant.

If you have a camellia, try a few of the young leaves. It should be tea!

Not the same species:
http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2694857

The tea species is camellia sinensis. Please be more careful and specific if you are going to be epicurious about yard or wild plants, many of which are quite toxic.

Well then, no wonder my camellia tea tasted like crap! :-)

Tea can be made from any camellia species. C. sinensis is THE tea plant but new growth from C, japonica, C. sasanqua or any of the hybrids can be made into tea as well. Not the same flavor but perfectly safe and drinkable.

Thanks for the heads up garden gal, I was hesitant to try. I have 10 different Camellias and about 30 8 foot trees so I may give it a shot, sounds interesting at the least. I wonder if you can use the hips like they do in rose hip tea.

LOL, Dave!

That's interesting, TY for the additional info, GG. (How winter-bored are you, BTW? I know the feeling!) So glad to have you visiting AL, if only virtually. :+)

If other species don't have a delicious flavor, that's not what I'm after. Camellias are everywhere here too & I've never heard of anyone making tea from them around here.

Brad, look forward to hearing about your results.

LOL!! yeah, Tiff - I am a bit bored :-)) I visit just about anywhere these days that there is a topic of interest to me and that shows up on the "recent GW discussions" listing. I'm getting to all parts of the country!!

Here's a link about making tea from other camellia species. There's even a prior discussion about it on GW if you Google.