Here they are. I know it may not look like much, but this is the very first time that cuttings i’ve made have unmistakably rooted and grown new leaves:

These two are from the batch of 30 cuttings i gathered in July from an old abandoned Japanese homestead nearby. The source plants were spindly, up to 3-4m tall, growing very slowly in the shade of cathedral-sized bamboo canopy. I’m guessing that these tea plants were planted long ago (perhaps early 20th century) by first-generation Japanese, so they might in fact be a ‘good’ cultivar. At the very least, theyve proven themselves to survive decades of neglect in our soil and climate here.

Of the 433 cuttings i have made so far from 4 different sources, around 80% are still going (meaning, they have not yet turned brown and died, nor have they put out new leaves.) The bulk of these cuttings are from ‘unknown’ plants, so they would not interest the tea purist, but perhaps some day (years from now..) they will turn out great.