Re: China Nursery
>I have a question on ordering plants from outside the US. What are the
>US government's regulations on imported plant material? I heard it was
>vaery costly in filling out the necessary paperwork. Are the plants
>shipped bare-rooted. I was under the impression that all soil or medium
>must be removed from the roots.
>
>
>Al Krismer
>Cincinnati
Al...
The import regulations are a bit lengthy to go into here, but in a
nutshell, anyone can get an import permit (no charge) as long as you obey
the rules. Here, in a nutshell:
Certain types of plants are prohibited outright. These are generally
plants of economically important crops that are suseptable to various
diseases. A good example is citrus.
Other types are subject to post-entry quarantine. That means that these
plants must be kept and grown in quarantine by the USDA to assure that they
don't carry disease. I believe plants in the hibiscus family are examples
here.
Plants such as cactus and orchids are prohibited unless they carry
documentation that they were produced commercially or by tissue culture.
These regulations are often refered to as CITES and relate to plants that
are endangered. Unfortunately, these regulations are so broad that they
include even the most common members of these families. The only exception
made is for the type of Opuntia (cactus) that they sell in the Hispanic
grocery stores for "nopalitos".
You are correct about the soil. All soil must be removed as it can carry
nematodes, etc.
I have an import permit and have brought back a number of interesting
things when vacationing. I stick mainly to seeds, bulbs and cuttings that
I can keep damp in plastic bags. I label everything to the best of my
knowledge (which for some specimens in none!) and I make sure to declare
them at my port of arrival. Usually, they will examine them on the spot,
but last time, when arriving in New York from Thailand, they retained them
for examination and then sent them on to me in a week (I had to pay the
FedEx charges, tho).
Here in the US we are relative lucky. Countries such as New Zealand (and
perhaps Australia) have very restrictive import regulations because of
their unusual flora and fauna.
Larger commercial nurseries that commonly ship overseas either build the
cost of paperwork into the price of their goods or may have a surcharge for
documention. This is one of the reasons why it is sometimes preferable for
several individuals to combine an order to an overseas nursery.
Don Martinson
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
l*@execpc.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
