Can Tea Grow In Canada?

by Jennifer Smith June 24, 2019

Tea is one of those brewing trends that is gaining momentum in the United States and Canada.

The tea plant is an evergreen of the Camellia family that is native to China, Tibet and northern India. Tea is mainly grown in Asia, Africa, South America, and around the Black and Caspian Seas. The four biggest tea-producing countries today are China, India, Sri Lanka and Kenya. Together they represent 75% of world production.

There are two main varieties of the tea plant. The small leaf variety, known as Camellia sinensis, thrives in the cool, high mountain regions of central China and Japan. This type of plant is what is grown in 15 U.S. states and in British Columbia. And, when we say British Columbia, we mean only one tea plantation on Vancouver Island.

Teafarm is Canada’s only tea plantation, thriving now with an additional 400 seedlings in defiance of an Agriculture Canada pronouncement that tea, mostly the product of tropical and subtropical regions, cannot be grown in this country. ("Canada's Only Tea Farm Defies Naysayers," The Star).

Tea can handle light frosts and cooler climates; however, tea plants thrive better in humid weather with rainfall. Growing tea outside requires up to three years to reach full maturity and partial shade with up to six hours of sunlight.