You might contact the Dept. of Agriculture. Such importations are under their purview.

For one thing, you will have to quarantine those roses for a substantial period of time, and make provision for them to be inspected, during that quarantine.

Also, be prepared for losses.
It's apparently not uncommon for plants to get stuck so long at customs inspection that they -- die.

You're going to want to be sure that you are dealing with a vendor who is experienced in this process.

Jeri

The Heritage Rose Foundation Forum has a few threads about a disasterous importation experience that happened to someone in Texas.
There may also be some successful stories there (Anne Belovich in Washington State has had success, and she's written about how it worked well for her.)
A lot depends on the port of import, about the speed of the plants clearing customs inspection, AND on the plants (all of the order) coming in totally healthy, or the entire shipment may be turned away.

Please also be aware that importing from Canada is usually much easier.

I experienced this frustration for years, then the Hooks of Roseraie du Désert in France began importing roses from all over the world, and I bought from them. If you have a specialist nursery you buy from, and they import roses for their collection, why not give a call to the owner(s)? See whether said owner might want the rose for the nursery collection. Admittedly you'll have to wait a few years, but this method will save you a lot of money and a lot of pain.
Melissa

Which rose are you looking for. One of our focuses going forward is exactly this. We have experience and contacts to help.

Anne Belovich imports almost every year and she thinks getting to know the person who inspects is very helpful. You have to be prepared to lose the whole shipment of course which has happened recently to her inspite of all her years of experience because it went through another port, plus some European nurseries are fairly cavalier about sending what you ask for. Anne thinks of that as part of the process(I have 5 roses that she got in one order that were not accurate) You must be able to plant them out separated from other plantings by 10 feet and keep them ready for inspection for 2 years. You have to be really flexible, have a sense of humor about it and it is really important to have someone handy who speaks the language of the country of origin-many unfortunate mis-understandings can be avoided that way. If it all goes horribly wrong you must rack it up to experience and move on. I am presently working of a list of Gallicas that I am interested in and Louberts has some of them. They are apparently still willing to export..still I wonder if I have what it takes?

Paul --

My apologies to everyone for piggy-backing on your question to Greybird, but I can't resist telling you that I've been waiting impatiently for someone to import the small Bourbon, 'Reverend H. D'Ombrain'.

I read somewhere (on HMF?) that a Dutch nursery was going to export that rare rose to Ashdown. Did that ever happen? Might it someday happen?

Another one that I find myself thinking about often (having seen it in glorious bloom last yr in France) is the modern apricot shrub 'Jocelyne Salavert'. I know nothing about it except that it's a show-stopper.

But it's 'Rev H D'Ombrain' that I covet above all others, so I'm hoping you can shine a ray of hope on that one . . . Thanks.

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful. And discouraging.

Yorkrose, I wish it was as easy to import from other countries as is from Canada. I frequently buy from Pickering and once from Hortico, as easy as from the US vendors. But I guess since the sale is within the same continent, not so much red tape.

Paul, right now I am not lusting for anything abroad, at least not this particular minute. That's right!, now I remember Peter Beales site states that Ashdown was their US venue for sales. But now that is gone...
I will definitely sit down this weekend when I have time and scout the international sites.

Not sure if I would try importing from the Loubert's after the experience Rozanna had with them.

Paul,
Do you have a "Have rose, will Travel" email or site where we can requisition imports Can you post which ones you can get/are ordering so others can in on it. (I want Kordes' Marlena in memory of my cat, Marlena).

Hi All,

We have been setting up a structure with our colleagues in The Netherlands to make importing a two way street. As many have mentioned some nurseries in Europe do not have experience with this. So instead our system is to have our colleagues gather everything wanted from Europe at their nursery and then it comes here in one shipment and vice versa.

We both have experience shipping back and forth and it has always gone smoothly. Plus they speak English and I speak Dutch so the language situation is not an issue.

As I no longer have a mail order rose business I have made arrangements with another one to get the roses propagated and out into commerce.

Regarding requests please contact me off forum. This is a business venture for me and so I feel this needs to kept off GW.

Paul

Ahh - will do!

I just asked the Peter Beales people if they'd be interested in carrying Paul Barden's roses, but I suspect a recession may not be the best time for this. We'll see.

Andrea

Louberts is under new management.. the original owners retired but with respect to all I also have to say that it did appear that a failure in communication early on caused a good deal of the grief with that blighted order. I do know that Anne had sucessfully ordered from them several times. Most companies use import specialists to manage their orders. Sounds like Paul has a good idea although I wonder about losing the shipping advantage of bareroot-since they would have to be quarentined-plus while you gain the advantage of being much more likely to get the order you lose the advantage of 2 years of bloom but you wouldnt have to arrange for inspection..well I suppose he is thinking all that out.

patricia

Yorkrose, I wish it was as easy to import from other countries as is from Canada. I frequently buy from Pickering and once from Hortico, as easy as from the US vendors. But I guess since the sale is within the same continent, not so much red tape.

Greybird, you have hit the nail on the head.

The point of the more stringent international quarantines, including the requirement that you be able to grow the roses in relative isolation for a few years after receiving them, is that believe it or not on other continents roses are subject to diseases not known to be present in the USA. Since roses are notoriously disease-prone to begin with, and since many other plants in the rose family are commercially significant in a far more major way than roses are (you wouldn't believe the number of fruits we eat in the USA that are rose family species), and since many of those other plants are equally disease-prone, and since virus diseases are among the most difficult of those diseases to deal with, and since virus diseases often jump freely from one rose family species to another rose family species, and since virus diseases sometimes show no symptoms at all until the rose has been growing for a few years, and since virus diseases are often easily transported from one plant to another by sap-feeding insects like aphids, leafhoppers, and thrips,

it really is justifiable to make sure that the roses you import from another continent aren't sick with some alien disease not immediately apparent.

This comment? - "Posted by patriciae Z7PNW (My Page) on Thu, Jan 21, 10 at 13:59"

Take that to heart - deeply to heart - all of it. It's perfect.