Seed importation (was What's blooming now)

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sat, 06 May 2006 09:16:30 PDT
Angela in Australia wrote:
>I have some seeds of hosta ventricosa
>and mirabilis jalapa ( marvel of peru)
>to give away.  I will send via PBS, if ok to send to the USA, also some
>bulbs of hippeastrum.

As of May 15 new regulations regarding importation of small lots of seed 
will go into effect in the USA. Joyce Fingerut of NARGS, who has been 
instrumental in getting these new regulations through the bureaucracy, has 
written a detailed article on the subject for the summer 2006 issue of the 
Rock Garden Quarterly. I (editor of that journal) can send a copy privately 
(NOT FOR REPRODUCTION) before the issue appears to foreign seed donors who 
need it.

The gist, however, is that the IMPORTER (e.g., Dell Sherk of the PBS 
exchange) needs to get a permit to import "small lots of seed," and will 
also receive a supply of labels which have to be sent to the sender for 
pasting on the parcel. The parcel must contain an alphabetized list of the 
contents. Presently the USA does not have a "white list" as Australia does; 
the list is used to identify "black list" items, such as the whole genus 
Lathyrus.

Jane McGary
Editor, NARGS



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