Import through port of entry, with phytosanitary permit-
same as plants. Or, at least, that's what happened when I brought in
sterile tissue cultures from Australia about a year and a half ago.
When the permit read "Orchids/Orchidaceae," that wasn't good enough-
each individual species had to be listed on the permit. Nevermind the
fact that CITES specifically exempts all orchids in sterile tissue
culture, regardless of what genus or species they may be- although
the Office of Management Authority seems to interpret some of the
stuff about paphs a little differently than other countries (none of
the species in this shipment from .au were paphs or phrags). The
Australian embassy had to get involved (very efficient folks there),
as USDA APHIS/PPQ refused to manually transfer the names from the
individual species onto the permit themselves.
As there was a substantial delay in processing, they were
good enough to refrigerate the shipment. Popped the entire box of
tropical orchids into refrigeration for over two weeks.
Part of my astonishment lies in how a (presumably)
college-educated inspection agent of the US government can take live,
tropical orchids and deposit them in refrigeration with absolutely no
suggestion on the part of the label, the shipper, or the recipient
that they need, in fact, to be refrigerated. A+ for taking the
initiative, but foul, vulgar language for the actions taken. (The
agent got extremely defensive when I asked why he would refrigerate a
box of tropical orchids, particularly when there was no labeling or
request to do so.)
More remarkable was how three of the species actually survived.
Cheers,
-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ
At 02:47 PM 4/18/2007, you wrote:
>Can someone give me simple easy to follow instructions with what a US
>hobby grower needs to do to import orchid flasks? The AOS site has a
>PDF file on importing orchids, but almost no information on importing
>flasks. I am looking at importing a few flasks of species that are
>difficult or rare to find here in the US. I would love to find a
>simple series of steps I need to go through to import the flasks I am
>interested in.
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