About the only thing I can tell you from here is that many people's trees this year did not put out leaves when expected (or even at all), and we're putting it down to global warming, or at least weird weather in general, for now. As yours may(?) live outdoors down there a lot more than ours, it may be reacting like an 'outdoor' tree vs the hothouse tropicals we treat them like, or going through its own little dormancy, though that seems pretty far fetched considering. Sometimes you just have to put things down to genetics. Try rooting a cutting and see what happens (and let us know).

The plant you are looking for is Camellia sinensis, which is the same plant whether you are looking for green tea, black tea, or oolong. The only difference is the way it's processed. From what I've heard, they are not difficult plants to start from seed. They are shrubs, and you would be collecting the youngest leaves, so if you want a lot of tea, you'd probably want quite a few plants. They also have fragrant flowers, which is a plus. I believe green tea is just sun-dried leaves, whereas black is fermented. Here's a little reference about the plant. Good luck! Teas rule! :) Here is a link that might be useful: A quick reference on the tea plant.

The leaves from tea, green or otherwise, would be a good and useful addition to any soil, just as any other type of organic matter would be. Some people think that tea leaves will make a soil more acidic and some sources report the pH of some tea leaves to be 4.9. However, the pH of most all tree leaves is in the 3.0 to 4.0 range and those doo not significantly change a soils pH when they are worked into the soil. Use those tea leaves in the soil your plants are growing in.

Hey, PeaBee4! Imagine that! ;-) Did you see the books listed above it? The Book of Tea---that is the one that sent me to that site. I've got a hardback old copy of The Book of Tea. But this one on growing looks cool. I'd have to ask the teenager next door to translate for me.