A cuppa from your own backyard | James Wong

Despite its tropical associations, the evergreen tea plant can thrive almost anywhere in the UK

You might think you'd need a colonial estate high on some exotic hillside to grow your own tea, but this pretty evergreen, with scented flowers and delicious leaves, can thrive pretty much anywhere in the UK.

A close relative of the garden camellia (Camellia japonica), the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), despite its tropical associations, is a distinctly temperate plant. Hailing from the same cold, soggy regions in China that gave us the rhododendron, these guys can handle pretty much anything the British winter can throw at them. In fact, the only reason they are grown at high altitudes in places like Kenya and Malaysia is that those are the only regions chilly enough to keep them happy. Take it from someone who tried and failed to grow it dozens of times in Singapore, yet has had a mini plantation of it in Croydon for 10 years - tea is not tropical.