Finding My Passion in Tea

I believe everyone has a passion—something that drives you, motivates you, and keeps you engaged. For some, it’s baking, sewing, watching movies, or dining out. For me, it’s always been gardening.

I’ve been growing plants for as long as I can remember, and since the early 1990s, I’ve had the privilege of joining Gene’s Nursery in Savannah, Georgia. The heart of that nursery was the camellia, and I quickly fell in love with these incredible winter-blooming shrubs. Over the years, we grew and sold many camellias, occasionally offering Camellia sinensis—the tea plant—from other growers. But we had never propagated it ourselves.

The Seed That Started It All

If you’ve ever met a true nursery grower, you know we can be a little… obsessive. We want to grow everything, all the time, with no thought to space or limits. Seeds, cuttings, even struggling plants—if it can grow, we’ll take it.

My tea journey began with a call from our nursery friend, Jerry Conrad, in Florida. “Do you want some tea seeds?” he asked. And of course, as any obsessive nursery person would, I said, “Yes!” A few days later, UPS delivered a large box containing a sealed five-gallon bucket of unshelled tea seeds.

Camellia sinensis is part of the camellia family, but unlike the red, white, and pink blooms you see in gardens each fall and winter, these plants are famous for something else—producing the leaves for green, oolong, and black teas.

With the help of a budding tea grower,  we spread the seeds, still in their husks, out in the sun. Slowly, the hulls began to split, revealing glossy brown seeds inside. Shelling them was slow work, but my two-year-old granddaughter took to it with great enthusiasm.

Planting and Growing

Once shelled, we soaked the seeds overnight, then planted them. Camellia sinensis can take three to six months to germinate, so patience was key. Eventually, we ended up with around 5,000 seedlings, which we lined out in containers at the nursery.

As they grew, I noticed how different they were from one another—variations in leaf size, growth habit, and even variegation. We selected certain plants for their unique traits, knowing they could be both beautiful landscape shrubs and productive tea plants. About 40 of those originals were planted for production and evaluation. Many are still thriving in our garden today.

Learning to Make Tea

A few years in, word got out that we were growing tea plants, and the interest was overwhelming. People wanted to know: “How do you make tea from them?” The truth? I didn’t know. I had always grown them as ornamentals.

When I went looking for answers, I found almost nothing—no books, no videos, and no teachers. So I learned the hard way—through bits of information and lots of trial and error. That very first batch hooked me. It amazed me how easy it was to make my own tea with just a little effort.

Sharing the Joy

I’m not a professional tea maker or a sommelier—I’m a gardener who makes tea the way I like it. I don’t sell it, so the only person I need to please is me. And that’s the beauty of it—you can grow and make your own tea exactly how you enjoy it.

Over the years, I’ve shared this knowledge through lectures and workshops, introducing hundreds of people—especially kids—to growing tea. It’s a perfect hands-on activity, and my hope is that they’ll carry it with them for a lifetime. My grandkids have grown up in the nursery, helping plant seeds and make tea since they were little.

The Tea Gardener

Because it was so difficult for me to find resources when I started, I decided my role wasn’t to produce tea for sale—it was to help other gardeners discover the joy of growing and making their own. In 2020, I published the first edition of The Tea Gardener: Your Guide to Growing and Making Your Own Tea, so others wouldn’t have to start from scratch like I did.

Book availabe in our store at Blackcreek Nursery or purchase online. 

Growing tea has taught me that the real reward isn’t just in the cup—it’s in the connection to the soil, the seasons, and the plants themselves. My hope is that by sharing what I’ve learned, more gardeners will discover the joy of harvesting something they’ve nurtured from seed to sip. Whether you grow one plant or a garden full, each leaf is a reminder that the best things take time, care, and a little bit of love.

Debbie Odom