As we closed out February 2020 and are blessed with an extra day, I want to touch on a few things that we have been working on since the beginning of the year. I decide since last year was an irregular winter/spring transition, (we had a week’s worth of 80 F’s degree days), that I…

I hope everyone has had a great winter holiday and great beginning to a new year. I can say that the Hortfire family had a quiet and peaceful one full of memories. I just want to take a moment and share a few things about what and where some of the things Hortfire will be…

So time and time again, I get asked,”how hard is it to make black tea at home?” A few years ago, I would of responded,”it is not easy.” George Mitchell, former USDA tea scientist, wrote a publication about it in 1907 titled,”Homegrown Tea.” ( USDA 1907 FarmerBulletin 301 Homegrown Tea ) Now granted this was…

In the past we have posted about doing asexual propagation of Camellias through vegetative cuttings in the winter time. This is an excellent way to preserve the genetics and reproduce plants that are “true to type” from their mother plants. For some, asexual vegetative propagation (with the exception of air layering) is nothing but an…

Since the several days of prep and endurance of Hurricane Dorian, I spent some time thinking about various blogs to write about. While I was initially planning on another horticulture-centric post, I made a decision to address and publish a certain aspect of the “Grow Forward,” slogan and how it relates not only to Hortfire…

In 2017, I took cuttings of 8 selections from Caw Caw Park. I made these selections not so much as random, but I drew from experiences of working with a diversity of camellia tea in the past, being able to study pictures from around the world, observing particular traits phenotypically (expressed patterns of the morphology~…

So about two weeks ago, I got a package in the mail from one of my fellow US tea growers, Jim Chestnut. Jim and I from time to time talk to one another, and have a great mutual respect as far as domestic US tea growers/producers. Some information we share publicly and then there are…

Don’t let that smile fool you, like it fools everyone but mommy and daddy. Someone is full of energy and demanding of our time, yet we give it to her as much as we can. Still, mommy and daddy do find time to let each other have a break. With that said, don’t take my…

As 2018 has come to a close, we have gone through a lot of changes in the past year. Mr Hortfire got married to Mrs Hortfire, I announced in July a transformation within the company moving forward, we had two visiting scholars come visit and tour the tea at Caw Caw County Park and made…

  In August, I had the honor to meet with Dr Donglin Zhang, University of Georgia and Dr Zhilong Hao, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. Both gentlemen came to Charleston for a very short trip to visit with me and to go look at the tea growing out at Charleston County Parks and Recreational Caw…

This blog is a dedication to one of my former instructors from Trident Technical College, Mack Fleming. Mr. Fleming passed away this morning. He leaves behind a legacy of accomplishments, from the creation of the original Charleston Tea Plantation to the countless number of students he educated and went on to be successful. I want…