Where to start... Before you order any plant material from over seas, you must obtain an Import Permit from the USDA. They will inspect your yard to insure you can properly keep the imported material at least ten feet from any other plants in the genus Rosa for the required quarantine period. And they will provide you with the list of requirements and rules you will follow for that period. At that time, they will also inform you of what and how much the fees to inspect your imports will be each inspection. APHIS, the office providing the permit, will provide you with stickers you have to send to the exporting nursery for them to affix to the outside of the shipments. As of last year (the last time I checked), it was still only legal to import rose material NOT EXCEEDING 10mm in diameter from any European source, including the bud union. That means, in essence, you can only import bud wood or own root cuttings. You need to make sure FilRoses supplies own root plants. If they only ship budded roses, the USDA will reject them due to their being too thick. That size material is required due to the Asian Long Snout Beetle. Anything thicker stands a chance of containing beetle larvae. It is an expensive process. I obtained an import permit four years ago and after finding out how much it would cost me in fees (to hand carry the material through the airport to the inspection and then send it on to me) and the $100+, twice annually, for two (perhaps more) years to physically inspect my imports, I decided against it. That hand carry charge may be able to be avoided IF your entry airport is small and low volume enough to allow you to be present and do the leg work. My point of entry at that time was LAX, and being that large and that "secure" an entry point, I would not be permitted to wander through the place to collect my shipment and deliver it to the USDA inspection station. I would imagine yours would very likely be, too, being in the Bay Area.

Euro Desert imported this rose while they were still operating and there are several gardens here in the US which list growing it. At least one (nanadoll in Idaho) is here on the Garden Web forums. If you can root cuttings or bud them, you might try asking if they would be willing to share cuttings. It would be TREMENDOUSLY easier and less expensive than going through what is now required to import any plant material.

Thank you roseseek. You are always a great source of information for us. You're the BEST! I have hoped maybe things may have changed and there is a better way of getting roses from Tantau, LOL.

Since it's a holiday season, here is my FilRoses wish list if things were different :) Helen

Thank you so much, roseseek. I have tried to get out the message a bit about the expense and difficulty of importing plant material once I learned of those difficulties from your helpful posts. You are the one who knows the stuff on this forum. I wonder why Filroses and others never mention what is required later after they send their roses off into the wild blue yonder to the US. It would save a lot of dashed hopes and disappointment for all of us. Diane

You're welcome! I'm sorry to be the bearer or such disappointing news. Don't hold your breath about anything changing. There are too many pests and diseases we don't want here for restrictions to be eased. Even if they were, there are still likely a few of the "non competition agreements" out there so prevent foreign raised roses from competing with American creations. There have been those types in effect easily since the 1960s. Now, with RRD being as wide spread in the US as it is, many European countries are even more skittish about allowing our exports across their borders. Germany is now almost as difficult to get material into as New Zealand and Australia have been for years.

Thank you, Diane! Ordering from foreign sources is like buying plant material on EBay. It's YOUR responsibility to research import restrictions and requirements. I do agree, though, that I would want an exporter to at least make me aware there are restrictions I should investigate before sending money, but that isn't the way it's done with far too many of them.

Thanks, for this additional information, Kim. I did not know about "non competition agreements". I suppose they are legal, but it sounds a little too much like a few companies have a monopoly. From there it's an easy step to price fixing (sounds a bit harsh). Pharmaceutical companies have been known to do this--in fact I was part of a class action suit about this very thing.

I totally agree that we don't want anymore plant disease and insect pests in this country. Idaho has become more strict about roses and other plants coming into the state. I think the roses have to have their leaves stripped off before they can come here. Edmonds won't send roses anymore to Idaho--not sure why.

Thanks again for your help and expertise. Diane

You're welcome, Diane. That's interesting about Edmunds not sending roses to Idaho any longer. I wonder why? J&P had a contract with Kordes for years. When they created similar appearing roses, it was common for them to pay each other the estimated royalties the roses might earn over their life and not import the into the respective countries. They had similar arrangements with McGredy, also. Sequoia Nursery had them with Meilland for a number of years, too.

Kim, Rose cartels. Who knew? Tantau must be getting a fortune in payments from all kinds of competitors who don't want them in the US. I've thought this for quite a while. I'm sure Kordes is ponying up, and maybe even Austin (could that be possible?). Diane

Tantau may have been receiving payments back when there was, at least a little money in creating new roses. Those days are long gone, unfortunately. Kordes opened their US affiliate because there was no longer any money coming from J&P. I doubt Austin has anything like that. No one else is raising roses here to compete with his.

Augusta Luise is so pretty, I'd buy it if I could.

Ben, thank you for sharing the info. It is very helpful. Helen