We grow a tea bush in the room - Chinese camellia

The perennial evergreen shrub camellia chinensis is one of the most common plants in India, China and other countries in the region. This is not surprising, because the well-known tea bush is hidden under the specific name.

As an ornamental indoor culture, this plant has not yet found wide distribution for two reasons:

• beautifully flowering camellia species make worthy competition to the culture;
• perennial, even with slow growth, requires mandatory cutting and crown shaping.

And yet the Chinese camellia is an extremely interesting species worthy of being grown by a patient florist.

The Chinese tea camellia has pointed-elliptical leathery leaves with a jagged edge and dark green color. While the leaf plate is just unfolding, it has a lighter shade, thinner and more delicate. On average, the leaves are 7 cm long and 4 cm wide.

The flowering of the Chinese camellia is more modest than that of its Japanese "relative". Simple flowers up to 4 cm in diameter emerge from the axils, often in pairs. Here you will not be able to see corollas of some bright or variegated color. Corollas are white or creamy pink, with a yellow convex center.

After pollination, in place of the flowers, rounded-flattened tricuspid capsules are formed, inside which are hidden rather large seeds, which ripen at home by the beginning of winter.

Caring for a camellia flower at home

The Chinese camellia tea can be considered an unpretentious indoor crop, and yet the plant has its own preferences that are important to consider. First of all, cultivation in loose, organic-rich, but always light, acidic soil is one of the mandatory requirements. As such a substrate, you can take a ready-made mixture for azaleawhere it is useful to add a little sphagnum and sand. The second option is a soil from a coniferous forest with pieces of bark and needles.

Planted young bushes need warmth and good lighting. Plants are exposed to light windows, where there is the possibility of shading the greenery from direct midday rays, which is especially important in summer.

In the warm season, caring for a camellia flower at home is reduced to regular watering, dressing and pruning, which is carefully carried out at the end of August.

The plant easily adapts to summer temperatures, so the Chinese camellia is often transferred to balconies, country verandas or garden. But with the onset of autumn, it is better to transfer the pot to heat.

The optimum temperature for a period of relative rest is 15 ° C. Further cooling threatens with oppression and death of the plant.

On hot days and when the plant is in a heated room, it is useful to spray the Chinese camellia with boiled warm water. Watering is carried out so that during active growing season the soil under the bush is always moist. However, the surplus must be drained off regularly. The culture perfectly accepts watering with acidified water. Mulching with bark and chopped steamed needles works well.

Several years after planting, the plants require an annual transplant. Then the growth slows down, and the camellia can be transferred into a large container in 2–4 years, taking into account the condition of the plant.

For plant propagation, it is easy to use the apical cuttings obtained during the August pruning.Rooting is carried out in a light substrate or water under a film cover. But besides this method, it is possible to grow camellia from seeds.

Growing Chinese Tea Camellia from Seed

Seeds for winter or spring sowing can be obtained from an adult bush or purchased at the store.

• Before planting in the soil, the seed is checked for germination by immersing it in water and removing light, emerging seeds.
• Then the seeds intended for growing Chinese tea camellia at home are immersed in hot water, where they are kept for several hours. This procedure can be replaced by soaking for 48 hours in water at room temperature.
• Prepared seeds 3-5 cm are pressed into a wet mixture of coniferous soil, sand and peat.
• The container with the crops is covered with foil or glass and left at a temperature of 22-25 ° C.

The soil before the emergence of shoots, after 1–2 months, should maintain moisture, while the greenhouse should be ventilated by briefly opening the film.

The sprouts should be dived when at least a couple of true leaves open. Already at this age, individual pots are prepared for Chinese camellias, and when planting it is important not to deepen the root collar.

In the first year, the growth of the shrub does not exceed 30 cm, and then it becomes even less. In the second year of life, camellia blooms, and the collection of leaves to obtain home-made aromatic tea can begin in 5-7 years. With good care, camellia at home becomes a real long-liver and has been adjacent to a person for more than a dozen years.

Subtleties of camellia care - video