I found this website http://trees-seeds.com/order.htm that ships tree seeds globally. It seems that there are no particular restrictions, but they do state that "Shipments travel at the risk of the purchaser." My fireflash is just starting to grow a flower stalk, so if you'd like, I'm happy to try to send you the seeds it produces. It seems that this plant will root pretty easily from seed, as some people have claimed that if you don't remove the flower stalk, then seedlings start appearing in the same pot as the mother plant. I don't know how well the seeds would germinate after being shipped, though.

I get all sorts of small parcels arrive here in Australia with varying seeds in them. One from the US sends seeds in a business envelope with a few sheets of paper folded around the packet. I have another in Europe who declares always and labels any hippeastrum seeds as Hippeastrum Papilio, and one I have got from the US in a jewellery box marked as ornaments. I just say (having inside knowledge of the workings of Australia Post and the connected Customs side of it), beware of "outright lying" if its a seed, say its a seed, no need to be absolutely specific. The capital cities have the dogs sweep over all parcels that come in when they are on duty.If your "jellery box" is opened and seeds discovered, yeah sure they will get through if they can be identified along with the leaflet from customs, but your details along with the recipients will be kept and all further parcels for/from either will be opened as you will be on the register. If there's nothing untoward in the parcels they will still get through, usually just a bit of a delay, but the risk of damage especially to a fragile seed like a hippy, or even the loss of a couple if packets get opened/broken isnt really worth it. Please be careful when posting either way. P.S. I am also guilty of sending actual plants to both Tasmania and Western Australia, which is a big no no here. Happy gardening and happy posting, the more trades the better, it helps us all. Kerrie

Oh, I am so sorry! That really bites! You ordered seeds from the UK, is that right? And I was wrong, and you were right on the amount of time to get APHI paperwork. I sent more Aphis paperwork in to get seeds from the UK, The Netherlands, Japan, South Africa -- pretty much any country I could think of LOL! It took a month? I just got it yesterday and I applied when I read your last message, whenever that was, so it was way longer than it was before for me. I think we need to put some pressure on our elected officials to get this straightened out better. You could start by just filling out the online form for your senators & representative and just briefly tell them what happened. The squeaky wheel does get the oil! So sorry!!! Oh, Last month I got 4 packs of seed from South Africa. They were sent by a trader and were sent in a regular bubble envie. They appeared to go right through. (Long story on why no paper work, but she appeared to be DYING for something I had in abundance, so I sent them, but then she wasn't happy until she sent me somehting back.) And it came right through. Why some and not others? Lime

It is my understanding that the daylily rust was brought in by the nursery trade, in a situation where quarantine was (inadvertently or otherwise) not exercised properly. Bringing seeds in is more of a worry if the seed is a weed species, or if the seed itself is dirty - contaminated by bacterial or insect pests. There are very few diseases that will be brought in with clean seed. Importing plants is a much higher disease risk. I agree though, that we should not encourage those people who might be trying to avoid the normal, legal methods of plant importation.... just because they want a particular plant. Re importing stuff in containers - we bought slate in castlemaine, that had been imported from india. The crates are supposed to be inspected before leaving india, but the crate previous to ours contained live lizards (hitchhikers) and when we finally got our slate, there was a dirty knife in the crate all the way from india. They are truly slack, and it is amazing that we don't have far more problems that we do.