Herbethyme, I am a grower and we import tens of thousands of plants from the Netherlands. It is not impossible to bring plants home from Holland but it requires preparation, money, and patience. In order to import plants from the Netherlands you require an import permit. You will have to apply for it prior to leaving for the Netherlands and you will need to state exactly which genus (example: Gladiolus, Dahlia, etc.) you plan on bringing home with you. The cost of the import permit is about $ 50.00. In addition, you will need a phytosanitary certificate from the Netherlands that states that the bulbs are grown under certain conditions. The phytosanitary certificate is issued by the company where you purchase your bulbs. There is a variable cost associated with this certificate. Once you arrive in Canada with the bulbs and declare them to customs, they will inspect them. If there is any soil on the bulbs or plants, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (Agriculture Canada) will probably confiscate them and charge you a fee to destroy the bulbs. They will also destroy the bulbs if they see that they do not appear on the import permit. It is very important that you add all the genera you want to import to the certificate. As you can imagine, this is a costly and lengthy process for a private individual. I have added a link for the import application should you decide to proceed. Best of luck Here is a link that might be useful: Import Permit application

I've brought back dried material for herbarium use without a permit, but I've been told that having a permit expedites the process. I applied for one, and it states that it covers "admissible nursery stock, plants, & roots not subject to postentry quarantine; seeds of trees and shrubs and also seeds covered in part [7 CFR] 319.37-6". I've had no problems bringing material in although I've been asked for a list of species, and specifically asked if I had certain families (such as barberry family in NYC arriving from England/Europe, and citrus family in LA arriving from Australia/New Caledonia). There might be closer scrutiny when bringing in live plants, particularly in regard to phytosanitary considerations. I avoid bringing plants on the CITES lists and make a point, both verbally and on my written list, that I don't have any listed species. I have found some variation in degree of scrutiny, but have encountered no real problems in LAX, Miami, JFK or Charlotte. Most of the time they have let me take the shipment with me, but where they haven't, it helps to sign a form authorizing the charging of a shipment by courier to one's credit card. If they want to keep the shipment, it is often because a weekend or odd-hour arrival means there is no one currently at the airport qualified to make the proper examination. Of course successful smuggling would mean no hassle at all, but I have found that if the inspectors can see that you are being completely honest and cooperative, and you are sincerely trying to comply with the regulations, they tend to respond favorably. So I would suggest checking "yes" to the agricultural question on the customs form, asking to see the USDA inspector, and hopedly you will have a favorable experience. Regulations change, so it helps to be cooperative even if an item turns out to not be admissible. The worse that can happen is that you are denied permission, but if you didn't bring it back with you in the first place, you would miss out completely anyway. Bring all labels and anything concerning any phytosanitary precautions or treatments with you to show to the inspector. Apparently there are entry points where others have had less favorable experiences. Good luck, and I look forward to reading about your experiences in this forum. Bob

faithann I agree with everyone above. I have been either buying seeds directly from Europe or having them brought back for me by friends for some time now. There are some really wonderful small seed producers with things you'll never find here. I haven't had any problems. If you're only buying tomato seeds, they're so light you can easily just mail them back to yourself. A friend who went skiing in Switzerland a few years ago brought back tomato seeds that I have really enjoyed growing from a company called Mauser. You can now get seeds directly from some companies in Europe over the internet. I wonder if it's getting easier for them. Two of my favorites are Le Biau Germe and Kokopelli (terredesemces.com), both on France. I buy beans, lettuce, etc. and the packages are marked with the names of the seeds and something like "garden seeds". Tomatsidan.se is a small company in Sweden that has some really interesting tomato varieties, particularly short-season types and lots from Eastern Europe and Russia. Some of these have become my favorites. Michael Anderson who runs it has charged me two dollars for each variety and just sends them in an envelope as you would a letter. As far as Italy, you can buy a huge variety of seeds directly from growitalian.com and italianseedandtool.com. I'll be curious to hear about what interesting varieties you find in your travels. Best wishes. Lou

Thermador is selling a zoneless induction cooktop. They announced it way back at CES but just started shipping it a month or two ago. The cooktop is 36" wide and can handle up to 4 pots. It auto-senses the pan locations, lets you move them around, and so on. There are some catches, though. The two halves (left and right) are kind of, sort of zones, since you can only have two pots on each side. And if you have a big pan in the middle it counts as one each on the right and left, so you can only have one additional pan on each side. And 4 pots/pans is itself a limitation: most of the 'zoned' 36" units have 5 positions. Another issue for me is that I haven't seen one of these units anywhere and haven't seen any forum posts -- here or elsewhere -- from anyone who has one. I definitely wouldn't buy something this new and expensive without trying it out first. A showroom near me says they may get one later this fall, so I may get a chance then. Finally there's the price: about $5,000 USD MSRP. Wow. I can get it for the dealer price, but that's still a lot of money. I'm thinking of getting one anyway, but fortunately I don't have to decide for a while. Being able to put a big griddle on one side and a couple pots/pans on the other side is attractive. As is the ability to use huge pans anywhere on the unit rather than just on one special burner. And I suppose I could use the griddle as a sort of french top if I wanted lots of little pans on one side. I hope other companies come out with more zoneless models by the time I need to order mine (5-6 months?) so I have more choices. I've heard rumors that Gaggenau may release one, but since they're owned by the same company as Thermador and Bosh I'm guessing it won't be much different from the Thermador model. Laura Here is a link that might be useful: Thermador Freedom Induction