Silver Dust Tea Plant. This is another one of those rare selections of Tea that I had never seen outside of Japan. It had not been given an official cultivar name by the Japanese, so I took the liberty of giving it this name. I saw it growing in the garden of Dr. Masato Yokoi, as a seedling. He co-authored several variegated plant books, 'Variegated Plants in Color' and authored several of his own. Dr. Yokoi is a retired college professor and one of the world's authorities on plant pigments. He insisted that I take the little seedling, but I refused. At the end of our stay when we were washing our plants at a nursery near his home and prepping them for the inspection station, he drove up with the plant already washed and in a zip-lock bag and gave it to me. The new growth emerges in the spring almost completely white, and as the leaves slowly mature, they turn green, with some silver flecking remaining on most of the leaves. With later flushes of growth, the leaves will remain almost white the entire winter. Keep this one in some shade as the new growth will tend to burn in full sun. It's ultimate size will reach 4-6' in height with an equal spread.
Zones 6-9
