Hello, I have the following fresh seeds: Red currant, musa acuminata banana, musa balbisiana banana, orange bird of paridise, traveler's palm, king palm, and passion fruit. I am interested in your tea seeds if they are pretty fresh. Please email me at djl278@psu.edu if you would like to trade. Thanks, Dave

The truth is that, oftentimes, camellias don't seem to take well to being grown inside. Birdinthepalm is a happy exception! It appears to be difficult to create the kind of atmosphere that they will thrive in. Particularly during the winter, when typical indoor humidity levels go way down inside. That, in combination with some improper watering practices (maybe?) could cause some real problems. A fast draining potting mix is always best for containerized plants, making over watering more difficult. If your medium drains properly, then you SHOULD water it to overflow each time, rather than giving it little sips. However, I've sure seen some soils that were mucky and soggy, and difficult to manage. Birdinthepalm explained it perfectly....they like being uniformly moist, but must never be overwatered! A fast draining mix makes that possible.

I'm sure everyone has their own way of recycling tea leaves, but around here, we add them to the compost pile. Mark tears open the tea bags and dumps the leaves into the compost "jar" that sits on the counter (with a tight lid) when he throws in the mornings coffee grounds. I do not want the bags in the mix. Some of them are made of a nylon type fabric and some are paper, but they don't break down very fast for us. Maybe it's the brands I drink. But it only takes a second to rip the wet bag open and dump the leaves, so that's what we do. I've never put coffee grounds directly around my plants, though I guess I could start. But we have always added them to the compost pile. Marcia

The 1/3 rule won't work with the harvest of camellia leaves for tea. You'll only be using the uppermost two or three leaves (from each branch) at any given time. Since the pinching off of these leaves will stimulate new growth, you'll be able to harvest another flush of growth in a few weeks (during the active growing season). I have NO idea how much (in volume or weight) of a harvest you'd need to make a single cup of tea. By the time the leaves are dried and processed, you aren't left with what looks like much from that particular harvest. I also don't remember how many times per season the leaves can be harvested. (I've only visited the tea plantation twice.) Much of that would depend upon the time of year, general climate, vigor of the plant, and the quality of the growing conditions. The older leaves would be extremely bitter and vile tasting as tea. Besides, those leaves are the energy generators for your plant. Without a lush complement of mature green leaves, your Camellia wouldn't be able to continue on to produce new growth over and over again. Also, if you remove the leaves or branch sections from older parts of the plant, you'll reduce the amount of energy that will be devoted solely to the production of new leaves at the tips of the branches.