Tea plants known as Camellia sinensis can be grown in the wild. Some plants are seen even in my hometown, Ehime prefecture. And my parents have several tea plants in their garden just to enjoy, not to produce tea. The plants are evergreen and the pretty white flowers open in autumn, so it is good to have in the garden.
However, we don’t usually see the flowers in the tea farms. How come?
To produce tea, the leaves are generally used, not flowers. If the flowers open, they absorb nutrition and the leaves can get less. In order to give enough nutrition to the leaves, the flowers have to be taken out. Poor little flowers.... but this is to make great tea. That's life, I suppose.
