Oh Gesh... well at least so far seems good..

Kim,
This might be useful.

Back in the day, when I worked in Houston, our company had an expediter on call at the airport to get shipments through customs. (Rock samples, mostly). One shipment the agent couldn't get to clear had a problem because the well was named for a nearby river and the inspector saw "soil" in the bags, which really was drilling mud and cuttings. So I went out to the airport to talk to the inspector (this took weeks to set up). As he pried open the box, over a hundred Houston sized cockroaches scampered out, onto me. I didn't notice them (Ha!) and we talked and he cleared the shipment.

That was when I found out that expediters can be replaced by me.

The charges for inspections used to vary from state to state. I wonder if that's a nationwide thing nowadays?

Thanks, Ann. This appears to be nationwide. I've heard of it occurring in Washington State, California, Maryland and I'm sure it's happened elsewhere. When someone can insert themselves into the US Mail getting shipments to USDA inspection points, and demand hundreds (one case was $600 fee for a shipment of 40 roses!) of dollars so your imports are "safe", it is extortion. The bill is sent, and they hold the roses until they are paid. Quite a "cottage industry", wouldn't you say?

I had the USDA contact me way back in 1985 to tell me they were swamped and if I wanted my rose import shipment faster, I was welcome to go to their inspection station by LAX and they would show me how to treat the roses myself. I did and got to take them home with me after treatment. It didn't help. I'd specified November shipment and not been notified that would be an issue. The roses arrived mid May. I left my sisters' Cal State graduation ceremonies, drove to the USDA and brought the roses home. It was 107 F that day, and continued in triple digits for the rest of the month. You can't break dormancy with bare root roses in triple digit heat. It was a total loss. That shipment had Cl. Sterling Silver, Blue Diamond, Purpurine and a bunch of other really neat and interesting sounding purple roses. Kim

Kim,

In a recent WFRS bulletin article, reference was made to the shipment of budwood from Europa Rosarium (Sangerhausen) to many parts of the world. That made me wonder if it's possible to import budwood into this country and, if so, if the regulations and procedures are as cumberson as those imposed for rooted plants.

Altho the threat of importing unwanted organisms would still be present, it seems that unrooted cuttings would pose far less of a threat. The problem, of course, would be in getting the cuttings released while they were still viable. Do you know of any US nursery or individual who has imported budwood?

Windeaux,
Back in the day when Ken Muncey had a rose nursery in Florida, he had worked with David Austin and each year imported budwood so he'd be able to offer the newest Austins in the appropriate year of their introduction.

All that ended with his death.

If we look at the timing of the Austin introductions by DATexas, there is more of a lag time than Ken was offering.

Somehow DA is getting their germplasm here. Does anyone know them well enough to ask?

Hi Kim: I was checking on sending roses via seeds. I'm curious what's the status on that? Would it be easier to send roses via seeds? Thanks.

There is a list of specific plants which are forbidden in any form as well as countries from which nothing may be imported. When you buy seed on Ebay from out of the country, according to this, you need an import permit prior to the purchase. I have sent rose seed to Australia with simply a customs form. I have sent caesalpinia seed to France using the same customs form. Bud wood to Germany and The Netherlands use the same form. Bringing anything IN TO the US has to conform to the information at the site listed below. Seeds included. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA APHIS

Ann, Thanks for that interesting bit of information about Ken Muncey and DA roses. I recall that a lag time for the introduction of new Austins did seem to develop about 6 or 7 yrs ago. I don't know if that coincides with when Muncey's closed, but I suspect that it must.

If anyone else can address the question I asked above about budwood, please do.

It's ironic, at least for roses: the USA is the place with the horrible intractable pests (midge, rosette, chilli thrips). The precautions are running the wrong way.

(OK, chilli thrips came from India.)

Did you hear the screeching of breaks? Fatal information was finally discovered, sufficient to bring this whole experiment to a screeching halt...

After 9-11 (whether this actually had anything to do with it or not, the change occurred after 9-11), our government determined that plant imports MUST be walked through the process, instead of permitting them to simply flow through the mail and filter through as has been the traditional case. Yes, you CAN walk them through yourself...IF your point of entry and inspection station permit it. My POE and inspection station are LAX which is too large, too busy, too "high security" and this requires I hire an expeditor. That is usually a USDA employee, who hand carries my order through the process. Cliff Orent shared with me the charges for one order he received back in 2007, the only information he had readily available at the moment. Remember, these are in addition to the actual cost of the plants and the cost of future inspections.

Overtime Customs Clearance $185
USDA Services $204 (they must walk the plants to inspection and back, which you used to be able to do yourself)
Single Entry Bond $85
Duty and Taxes $25
Carrier Certificate $30
Import Delivery $122.29
Messenger Fee $40

Total Charge $691.29.

For a nursery importing several hundred plants, this might be a cost more easily absorbed. Unfortunately, they don't drop dramatically for shipments of just a few plants.

The final nail in the coffin is the more recently imposed size restriction. I imagine it was in an effort to reduce the potential for importing borers, but about a year and a half ago, the USDA changed the standard for the size of material they will permit to enter the US. No rose material greater than 10 mm diameter (that's .394 inches thick) will be permitted entry. That pretty much limits anything brought in to small rooted cuttings and bud wood.

Most nurseries overseas bud their plants. It would be hit and miss finding even a one year, rooted stock of that gauge. A two year, budded plant where the THICKEST portion of the plant (including the bud union) doesn't exceed .394" in diameter would have usually been considered a cull. Even for stentlings, the stock is usually 4 to 10 mm before grafting. The gauge for a two year old product is most often much thicker than that.

I suppose if your situation permits you to receive the small, thin dormant plants and bring them out of dormancy under greenhouse or shade house conditions, this could work. My situation doesn't. My quarantine area, required by Federal Law to be a minimum of 10' from anything in the Genus Rosa, must be nearly twenty feet down slope from the planted rose area where I can create a pad to hold fifteen gallon cans in which to plant, grow and hold the imports until released from quarantine. There is no way anything of a 10 mm gauge could be expected to successfully break dormancy and survive in the conditions experienced on that slope.

A very frustrating facet of this experiment is digging out the information required to successfully accomplish it. The only way to discover all the pitfalls is to ask those who have experienced them personally. No one I have been able to speak with at the USDA nor my local County Ag Station nor the "wonderful" USDA web site either know these issues or are able to point you in the direction to find them out. Ironically, I received a call from my inspector yesterday. We'd missed my initialing one of the boxes on the paperwork. She could be here in twenty minutes. I thanked her and let her know what I'd discovered. She seemed horrified as she had no knowledge of any of it.

Importing isn't impossible, but it certainly is tremendously more expensive and fraught with many more restrictions than it has been in the past. If you live near a less restrictive POE and inspection station; have a sufficiently deep checking account to permit some rather hefty expenses to enable your hobby, and can commit suitable conditions and space for small pieces of plants for the required two years, you may still bring in stentlings, cuttings and bud wood. I think for most of us (definitely me), this will prevent entertaining what used to be a rather fun rose adventure.

Yes, Michael, it does appear the restrictions are in reverse as we seem to have more than our share of pests. For colder climate nurseries, this apparently isn't a worry, as they feel their climates kill off most serious pests. I've been rather surprised how unimportant the virus issue is to several I've had contact with. It has ranged from total oblivion about it to simply not caring as they've felt if there was infection, the plants would simply die out and the only "spread" would be within the specific cultivar through propagation. Of course, for more Mediterranean climate types, there should be greater restrictions and worry because the climate would encourage spread and faster infestation. Kim

The $691 that Cliff Orent has to pay to import roses in 2007 is outrageous! It makes more sense to breed new roses here. Thank you, Kim, for encouraging folks to breed new roses and teaching folks how to root trough burrito-method.

I prefer own-roots. You are right that cheap roses from Walmart can't measure up to own-roots from nurseries. That Heirloom I got for $5 at Walmart has only one stem, the rest died - it looks really lopsided. I'm thankful that I don't get a virused one. My hardened clay restricts Dr. Huey's rootstock, and it would be worse invasion if it's a loamy soil. After I killed Knock-outs on Dr.Huey, I was annoyed at how many roots I have to pull up, like 4 feet away.

Size is another factor for own-roots, or roses bred here. My own-root William Shakespeare is really cute 1' x 1' like a mini-rose for its second year. It's a contrast to the huge octopus Austin-on-Dr.Huey in warm zone.