Hi Don Komarechka, nice to see another European giving tea growing a go! I've been growing tea shrubs since around 2016. Both in The Netherlands and in Portugal. I struggled with the exact same questions you have. When I started, it was hard to find information about growing tea over here. It's been quite a long time since I looked into it. But I remember that it was very confusing to find contradictory information about growing tea. The deeper I looked into it, the more confusing it got!
I started out with seedlings I managed to obtain in The Netherlands. The seller didn't have any info about the variety or origin. My guess is they come from a hybrid. Considering the original tea region, I was most afraid of the Dutch winter killing the plants. Long story short, the plants had by far the biggest problems with the sun/low humidity in the Dutch summers, which usually aren't that extreme. They were growing in big tubs, placed on saucers. I watered them meticulously. Apart from a few days where temps dropped below -10C, I kept them outside year round. During summer, leaves would burn and shrivel in the sun, despite there being water in the saucer. This stopped whenever I put some shading above it. They definitively needed shade in summer! Winter wasn't a problem, really. Just a few years ago I had the opportunity to plant out the tea. I chose the most shaded spot in the garden for that. I hope to colonize the rest of the garden with the seedlings I've been nurturing. Portugal is a different story I won't get into now.
This year I accidentally walked by a tea plantation in the South of France. It had shade cloth at the ready, but not covering it (in april). Same story for a commercial grower in The Netherlands. I'm not sure about the winters where you are. If they are very cold and windy, you may want to have a look at how people grow tea in Scotland.
Your plants may not have a taproot (if they are propagated from cuttings). This would make them less drought tolerant. Especially the first few years. If I were in your shoes, I would definitively keep the plants away from getting direct sunlight in summer for at least a couple of years.