Camellia sinensis, also known as the Tea Plant is one of our favorite plants that we grow at my nursery.  But even more rewarding than harvesting our own tea is feeding the bees! When tea plants are grown for harvesting leaves, the plants are kept pruned so they don’t put on many flowers.

Tea Plants that are not pruned will flower heavily. Tea Plants are an excellent food source for bees and when they collect their pollen in the fall, they pollinate the flowers, which turn into seeds that we harvest the next season! For this reason, we have a huge group of tea plants at our farm that is just for the Bees – no pruning or harvesting of leaves. We call them Bee’s Tea! As of June 2022, we have planted over 250 Camellia sinensis Tea Plants for the bees!

In 2006-2008, before there was a Blackcreek Nursery,  I began my ‘tea journey’ at my then nursery, Gene’s Nursery in Savannah GA.  I fell in love with the magnificent evergreen camellia species and quickly found that not only was it used as the world’s source for Tea, but it was also a great pollinator plant.  Native, no, but beneficial YES!    Debbie Odom