We’re delighted to announce that Lexus Snows will be returning to support Toby’s Garden Festival, alongside Dartmoor Estate Tea. Located in the Castle Courtyard at this year’s festival, they’ll be brewing up an exciting programme of talks, stories, and exclusive offers for visitors to enjoy. We caught up with Jo & Catherine to ask a few questions before the festival:
🌿 Tea, Gardening & Ritual
Interviewer:
Let’s start with the connection between tea and gardening.
Jo:
Many people love spending time in their gardens—pruning, tidying, and maintaining order. It’s about care, consideration, and thinking ahead, because what you do now affects the future.
That mindset closely ties into tea—both the ritual of preparing and serving it, and even its chemistry. Tea has a calming effect, much like being in a natural environment.
Catherine:
Historically, tea drinking in places like China and Japan was very ritualistic, and that’s how it first came to the UK. Over time, we’ve shifted to more casual habits—like drinking strong black tea with milk from a mug.
But tea still plays an important role socially. It’s something we share—whether for a chat, to deliver news, to relax, or simply to take a moment out of the day.
Jo:
And for gardeners, tea is part of the routine. Before gardening—have a cup of tea. After gardening—have another cup of tea!
🌱 Expectations & Starting Out
Interviewer:
Did you expect to be successful when you started?
Jo:
Not at all. We had no expectations because we weren’t experienced growers. In fact, we often joked that we struggled to keep houseplants alive.
It would have been foolish to assume success—we hoped it might work, but we didn’t expect it.
🍃 What Tea Plant Do You Grow?
Interviewer:
What type of camellia and growing conditions are needed for tea?
Catherine:
One of the most common questions we get is: “Which tea are you growing?”
All “true teas”—black, green, white, and matcha—come from the same plant: Camellia sinensis (with some variations like Assamica). Herbal teas, technically, aren’t tea—they’re infusions.
Even though tea is one of the most widely consumed drinks in the world—second only to water—people often don’t realise that all these varieties come from the same plant.
🌧️ Growing Conditions & Challenges
Jo:
From what we knew at the beginning, tea prefers acidic soil, plenty of water, good drainage, and warmth. It stops growing if the soil temperature gets too low.
What we’ve been doing is testing the limits—seeing what tea can tolerate in the UK. We’ve planted thousands of seed-grown plants with genetic diversity and observed which ones perform best here.
Now we can identify cultivars that are better suited to the UK climate, and that’s what we focus on.
🌿 What Part of the Plant Is Used?
Interviewer:
What parts of the plant are used for tea?
Catherine:
It’s the fresh new growth—specifically the leaf bud and the two leaves below it. The older leaves are left for photosynthesis.
Around the world, tea is still largely hand-picked to ensure quality, although some places are moving towards machine harvesting.
🍵 Loose Leaf vs Commodity Tea
Catherine:
For speciality loose-leaf tea, consumers want whole leaves in their cup or teapot.
In contrast, commodity tea—like tea bags—is made from finely chopped leaves, so it doesn’t require such careful picking. That’s why loose-leaf tea is usually hand-picked.
🍃 Types of Tea Produced
Interviewer:
What types of tea do you produce?
Jo:
We produce white, green, black, and oolong teas—and occasionally yellow tea when conditions allow.
Catherine:
And all of these are served without milk.
☀️ Why Is Yellow Tea Rare?
Interviewer:
What conditions are needed for yellow tea?
Jo:
Yellow tea requires warm, humid conditions—around 30°C with humidity—and part of the process involves drying in sunshine.
In the UK, we might only get those conditions for about a week each year. Timing is also crucial, because once you harvest leaves, you need to wait for new growth before picking again.
So sometimes the weather is right, but the leaves aren’t ready—or vice versa.
🌞 Climate Challenges
Interviewer:
How did last year’s weather affect your crop?
Jo:
The drought reduced our crop significantly. Tea stops growing when temperatures exceed about 32°C.
Catherine:
Plants have a natural self-protection mechanism. In extreme heat and dryness, they won’t produce new leaves because they don’t have the resources. So the plants effectively went dormant, and we lost part of the harvest.
🌍 Climate Change & Global Impact
Catherine:
This isn’t just a UK issue—it’s happening globally. Climate change is affecting traditional growing regions, including parts of Europe and China.
We’re also seeing extremes—very dry periods followed by very wet ones—which makes planning difficult.
🍵 Best-Selling Teas
Interviewer:
What are your best-selling teas?
Jo:
Black tea is our most popular, as that’s what most UK customers are used to.
Catherine:
Green tea has become increasingly popular over the past 10–15 years, partly due to perceived health benefits—although both have their own benefits.
Jo:
White tea has its fans, and when we produce yellow tea, it sells very quickly—but we don’t make much of it.
🌿 What Visitors Will Learn
Interviewer:
What will visitors learn from your stand at the festival?
Jo:
They’ll learn what the tea plant is and that it can be grown successfully in the UK. It’s also a great addition to a garden—for interest and pollination.
Catherine:
It’s also great for wildlife. We see birds like long-tailed tits, blackbirds, robins, and wrens using the plants.
Plus, visitors can learn how tea is processed—how the same leaf can become different types of tea.
Jo:
And they’ll see that even complete beginners can succeed. We made plenty of mistakes along the way, but perseverance pays off.
🎯 Closing Thoughts
Interviewer:
Thank you very much—that was really interesting.
Jo:
I’m glad we did this over Zoom—I didn’t fancy typing all that!