New Jersey Tea

Size, growth and what to expect

New Jersey tea grows wild from Quebec and Minnesota south to Florida and Texas, on dry open plains and prairie and on sandy or rocky ground in clearings at the edge of woods. It is slow, a few inches a year on an average site, our growth estimator's figure for a slow grower of its size. It is a low shrub of 2 to 3 feet, typically about 5 feet wide, over a shallow mat of fibrous roots and a thick, deep, burl-like woody root. Those massive roots let it stand poor, dry ground, and they make an established plant hard to move.

The flowers open from May into July in fragrant creamy panicles 2 to 5 inches long, made of blossoms an eighth of an inch across. The three-lobed capsules that follow ripen from August into early October and eject three seeds apiece. White-tailed deer browse it through the growing season, and in the Missouri Ozarks they take the twigs heavily in winter. Turkeys and quail eat the seed.

How to grow New Jersey Tea

New Jersey tea wants full sun to light shade and sharp drainage: sand, gravel, rocky loam, a bank that bakes in August. Wet or heavy soil rots the roots, and limey ground suits it as well as acid. Plants grow wider than tall, so set them 3 feet apart.

Plant potted or bare-root plants while dormant and young, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and add no fertilizer. Do not tease the taproot apart or plan to move the plant later. Sow seed outdoors in late fall, half an inch deep in a pot or a screened bed; it comes up in spring. For spring sowing, pour water heated to 180 to 200 degrees over the seed and soak it for 24 hours as the water cools. Then hold it in damp sand in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days. Seedlings are weak their first season, so keep them weeded.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Deer and rabbits browse it, so cage a young plant for two or three years, and keep mulch thin, gritty and clear of the crown so voles have nowhere to nest. It is built to be burned off by prairie fire and resprout, so an old, leggy plant can be cut hard in late winter; otherwise it needs no pruning.

Growth is slow, and seedlings are slow to start. Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Leaf spot and mildew mark the leaves in a wet summer and rarely matter; wet soil kills it. The capsules turn brown in August and burst, throwing seed several feet, so bag a cluster before it splits if you want the seed.