Tea Plant Shipping

We only ship tea plants within Georgia at this time.  Please contact us if you are interested in placing an order for shipment.

Most everyone is familiar with Tea, especially if you live in the south.  If you ask most people below the Mason-Dixon line what kind of tea they drink most will say ‘Sweet or Unsweet’ and 90% want it iced.  But what many people do not realize is that the tea we love to drink comes from one specific Camellia species – Camellia Sinensis.  All tea, green, black, oolong, sweet, or unsweet all comes from the leaves of one plant.  The way it’s processed determines the type of tea. 

Our history in the nursery industry and growing Tea spans over 30 years. As a wholesale and retail grower, we have grown many plants, but our favorite and most prized is the Camellia species. As a breeder, we are overly excited to produce new plants, and as a grower/retailer, we are super excited to share them with our customers.

We do not sell our own processed tea.  We do grow the plants that make the Tea and we enjoy sharing our passion with others!

Because we were so entwined in Camellias, it was only natural for us to grow many different Camellia species.  Camellia sinensis is just one of the many hundreds of Camellia species known to exist in the world today. But most people do not realize that it is the most important of all Camellia species if not all plant species.

I first became infatuated with Camellia sinensis as an ornamental plant. I loved the beautiful flowers that bloomed in the fall.  I enjoyed watching the bees as they swarmed around the opening flowers collecting that last bit of pollen before the winter weather rolled in.  We grew a small amount of Tea plants from cuttings off a few plants we had at our Savannah nursery.  Our obsession didn’t start until we received a call from a nursery friend.

In 2008, Jerry Conrad with Erinon Nursery called us and said ‘Hey, I have a whole bunch of Tea seeds.  You want them?’ and like most nursery growers our answer was a ‘YES’.   So a few days later UPS arrived with a duct-taped 5-gallon bucket of unshelled Tea Seeds.  So we unpacked the bucket and laid out the tea seeds on a cardboard sheet in the sun so they would crack open to get the seeds out.  My then 3-year-old granddaughter was so enthralled with the process that she sat for hours helping me shell all of those seeds!   We eventually planted them and when they grew, they became the first plants installed in the Tea Garden in Bulloch County!

In 2012, we started planting tea plants in a farm-type setting in rows out in a cleared field at my family home.  We planted two rows with 100 plants in each row.  We wanted to have enough just to harvest some seeds and take some cuttings.  They did so well, that we increased it by another two rows, and finally in 2018, we planted the entire field with tea which came to about 1/2 acre.  Our original goal was to have some to harvest for ourselves, and have the remaining tea plants for cuttings and seed production.

Teaching people to grow their own tea has always been a passion of mine.  I have done many programs and talks on growing tea, but you can only get so much from a PowerPoint presentation.  You lack the hands-on educational opportunities that talking to a group off-site can provide.  In 2020, when we decided to open our nursery for Retail, converting the tea field into a harvestable field was the top item on my list.

Today we have over 1000 tea plants growing at the Blackcreek Tea Garden that are used for seasonal workshops during the summer to share our love of growing this remarkable plant!   Of course, we are growing and making our tea – We don’t sell our processed tea but are happy to share it when available with our visitors!

 

The Tea Gardener Book

The Gardener’s Guide to Home-Grown Tea with Camellia sinensis

I wrote this book to fill a gap I saw—there just wasn’t enough clear, practical information about gardening with tea. First released in 2020, The Tea Gardener is now available in paperback at Blackcreek Nursery and in digital format for online purchasing.

This easy-to-read guide, complete with full-color photos, gives you the head start you need to grow your own tea. Inside, you’ll learn:

• How to understand tea as a plant

• The basics of growing and caring for Camellia sinensis

• Harvesting and processing your own tea leaves

Whether you’re a beginner or looking to expand your garden, this book will guide you step by step on your own tea journey.

Available in:
Paperback (at Blackcreek Nursery) or purchase the Ebook here –  The Tea Gardener Digital Edition

About the Author

Debbie Odom is the owner of Blackcreek Nursery & Garden and Blackcreek Herbals, where she combines her love of plants with a mission to help others grow with nature. A seasoned plant breeder and retail grower with over 30 years of experience, she is especially known for her work with Camellias and Camellia sinensis (tea plants).

Debbie tends a ½-acre tea garden in Southeast Georgia and shares her passion for growing tea through classes, consultations, and her book, The Tea Gardener. Whether teaching hands-on or writing from the garden, she inspires others to explore the joy of cultivating their own tea.