I've mailed cuttings, not plants with native soil on their roots, but cuttings to many states in the Continental US for over two and a half decades. I've received cuttings from many states in that time, too. I have mailed cuttings to several areas of Canada; seeds to Canada and Australia; budwood to Belgium and The Netherlands, and I've never had to have anything other than a Customs Form from the Post Office for shipments out of the country. I've never had any issues sending or receiving cuttings from any of the 48 continuous United States. If you send cuttings to Canada, you send them as "wood samples", no value. The same for bud wood overseas. For seeds to Australia, I simply listed them as "Rosa hybrida seeds (cross or variety name). I simply use Priority Mail, usually Flat Rate, and no one has ever interfered. Kim

I found this thread because I had a visit from a SITC officer with USDA this afternoon. First..he was a very nice man, and I learned a lot from him..so no complaints with a man just doing his job. He knocked on my door, showed his badge, then asked me if I had ordered "peanut seeds" from China on ebay? I had not, I had ordered "Jungle nut" seeds, from China on ebay, (last October)...I told the truth. He asked what happened to them , I told him I planted them this Spring, but only 1 came up..walked him out to the garden, showed him the row, with a marker that said jungle nuts, and my one little plant. To my surprise, he didn't take it, didn't ask me to pull it..said he would just give me a warning, and let it go? We had a long talk about importing things..I knew plant diseases could be spread through vegetative material, but not seeds..he taught me a lot. He also said that if I were deemed a persistent offender, I could be fined $5,000.00.......that got my attention! He said they were mostly interested in high volume buyers buying in bulk and spreading the seeds all over the country...I told him that usually I buy U.S. seeds, but that 2 days ago I ordered Brassica Juncea Zha Cai on ebay, from China, as I couldn't find a U.S. seller...and what to do now? He wrote down what I told him, gave me his business card...and honestly, I was so shook up after hearing 5K fine, I don't remember what he told me to do with the seeds..I will e-mail him and ask. During our conversation I told him there was an Australian seller selling the Juncea seeds, he said it was illegal to order seed from ANY foreign country including Canada. All I know is I'm done ordering seeds from other countries..I am obviously on somebody's list now, anyway. The USDA must have access to Ebay records somehow, because he had my name and address as well as name/address of seller in China. I truly didn't know it was illegal, and as I said, I buy U.S. seeds 99% of the time, anyway. Odd thing is, after he left I looked up my ebay order and realized that I had ordered a rare Chinese long bean(yard long) from that same seller only a month before I ordered the Jungle nuts. He never mentioned them? So...here I am with my one little Jungle nut plant..I hope I get a few nuts from it so I can plant my own seed next year..although they are much easier to get now in the U.S.

Hi Don_r, It might help if you posted just where you are in the Midwest. According to Wikipedia, the Midwest covers quite a large area. You might want to also put your state abbreviation in the zone box in your Member Page profile, (see I am zone 5/6 S IN). That way it will show on your Member Page and automatically be shown when you post to a thread. There is a link in the green banner at the bottom of any page ( Member Pages) for updating your info. Sue

Jeff's website: http://www.localharvest.org/elsys-plants-M41595 He is a very helpful and accomodating individual. I plan on picking up some more plants from him next summer. The website is not very detailed. It is best to contact him by email to discuss the plants you want. If you are shipping to the US and then picking them up personally and taking them back over to Canada, you do not need any certificate. I had ordered two mangoes (Julie & Carrie) and a carambola from Jeff and did not have any certificates when I picked them up in Nigara Falls, USA and took them back to Canada. I showed the border guy the CFIA regulation and he was ok with it. You can google "us address ship to canada" & you will find lots of places that cater to Cdns. for this sole purpose. Here is a forum that discussed this - I just googled it: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/us-shipping-address-canadians-514393/ and on it, a person specifically asked about Montreal and the reply: "Hi, What is the best one or nearest one to Montreal? Thanks. Freeport Forwarding 1320 Route 9 Champlain, NY 12919 518-298-8582"