One explanation is its simply a seller who uses they delivery as a way to write a review on Amazon of the great service they give..written by the seller as a buyer. The seeds I got were like Chia..but,have no idea what they really were and some photos on the net show large pea like seeds. Whatever they can get in bulk. All part of basically an advertising manipulation scam.

FEED ME!!!!! ;>)

Wasn't her name Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors?

Karen actually the plant was Audrey II, the girl Seymour (Audrey II's caretaker) liked was Audrey (hence he named the plant after her). Funny.

If you do these you should contact your state board plant official. Here is a recent article from APHIS, with links to the contact for your state: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/stakeholder-info/sa_by_date/sa-2020/sa-07/seeds-china

When my Voo Doo lily surprised me with blooms this summer, I told the grandkids that it eats mice. I did tell them the truth later but couldn't help myself.

It smelled like a dead mouse in there. Plant is one leaf and is over 5 feet tall so far!

My son got me a Titan Lily which is the largest. It's one leaf looks like a tree and gets over 10 feet high!

Sorry for off topic.

Feed Me, Seymour. I'm Hungry!

I need that plant in hopes of catching some chipmunks and squirrels. Just kidding!

Voodoo Lilies do stink pretty bad. I keep forgetting that it is blooming when it smells like a dead animal in the backyard. Seems like the climbing rose blooms around the same time so I go from very enticing smells to dead, rotting flesh further back.

bare bulb in a cardboard box (early April, 2016)

One in the ground this year made it all the way. The other one was damaged by something or some critter.

In Canada, the Food Inspection Agency has instructions where to go and what to do:

https://www.canada.ca/en/food-inspection-agency/news/2020/07/cfia-statement-on-unrequested-packages-of-seeds.html

Essentially, keep the seeds/package/address it came from and call up your local CIFA office.

Was on AOL this morning. Read that they are harmless seeds but all the testing not in yet. Mostly herbs. Morning Glory included. To me that is a weed. Nice but gets out of control easily. Winter kills but seeds keep coming up every year.

I thought the same thing - probably ordinary garden plants. Could it be worse than Kudzu? People are losing their collective *&^# over this as though they are nuclear waste material or alien seeds, maybe zombies.

I have seen Kudzu take over entire lots, trees and all. Surprising thing about Kudzu is that it is very good for cattle and they love to eat it. So not so good for suburbs but great for farm lands.

Kudzu is also known as the mile a minute vine and the vine that ate the South.

We went to Providence Canyon (below Columbus, GA) years ago (before digital photography). It is also know as The Little Grand Canyon. It is truly little but the layers of sediment are very striking. You can hike the entire canyon in a couple of hours - to the bottom to the top on the other side and back around the horseshoe bend to the parking lot. This canyon is entirely man-made (or a colossal mistake by man) since they used the land to the point of exhaustion - nothing would grow on it so wind and water erosion made this small horseshoe shaped canyon. To complicate matters they planted Kudzu to stop the erosion. So today, the trees and other plants including the plum azalea are seen there but along with the ubiquitous Kudzu.

I can tell Kudzu is nearby in late summer/early fall when I smell grape bubble gum since the blooms smell just like that.

If only we could release cattle and goats into the forests to tame the kudzu but what else would they eat and also be road kill too?

PS: Georgia Power had goats brought in to some of their inaccessible areas around their hydro plants where hillsides are too dangerous to walk on, let alone maintain. I think they had to capture the goats after a few years to let other plants grow again. Too much of a good thing?

Tallulah Gorge in N. Georgia.

The power house is the brick building several hundred feet below (the white roof and red brick building) that you take a tram down to from this point. Only employees have access. It looks like you could climb it but taking the tram down and up proves it would be quite risky and also very exhausting.

hc mcdole Very pretty! Reminds me of the gorge/river from the movie “Deliverance”. I googled that river b/c the scenery was so gorgeous in the movie. It’s on the border of GA/NC. Rob & I do ALOT of canoeing, but that is more than a little beyond our skill set. It goes up to class 5 rapids. Yikes!

Rob’s mom did not get seeds but rather a fidget spinner in the mail from China that she didn’t order. Very odd.

WOW!

"Stush2049 Pitts. PA, zone 6

.... Surprising thing about Kudzu is that it is very good for cattle and they love to eat it. So not so good for suburbs but great for farm lands."

If only we could train the cattle to climb trees to eat the blasted thing.

Did the news say what kind of a plant it was. what if it’s a beautiful plant with beautiful flowers

The news stories I saw showed various and multiple seeds, each type pkgd individually. All different sizes & colors. I couldn’t distinguish any labels though they flashed them on the screen so quickly. They news stories didn’t identify them either.

I haven’t gotten any nor do I know any one who has. If I did I wouldn’t plant them to find out. I’d contact the county or state Ag dept.

I read weeds, nothing specific.

AOL showed a news story and said herb seeds mostly. Didn't say anything bad but said still more testing to do. I wonder how much time and money and effort went into this.

It's like finding a bag and the bomb squad has to come in and shut down the street and send in a robot to pick up and blow up to see what's in it. A lot of waist of money and effort.

Can't leave our guard down, Maybe the next set of seeds will be the triffids.

Fun aside, here is a little more on those seed packets from China. My Congressman, Greg Steube, sent this information out today to his constituents. Perhaps it will help someone. Everything that follows is from him, not me.

Several Floridians have received unsolicited foreign seeds from China in the mail that may be invasive species or noxious weeds. These are reported to arrive in sealed packages with no label and include planting instructions. If you receive these seeds, please do the following:

1) DO NOT plant or discard them and if they are in sealed packaging, do not open the sealed package.

2) Report the seed package to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service APHIS Anti-Smuggling Hotline at 1-800-877-3835 or SITC.Mail@aphis.usda.gov

3) Report the seed package to the FDACS- Division of Plant Industry at 1-888-397-1517 or DPlhelpline@FDACS.gov

4) Please hold onto the seeds and packaging, including the mailing label, until someone from FDACS or APHIS contacts you with further instructions.

Copied from my AOL news feed;

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has identified some of the plant species in bags of unsolicited seeds arriving in mailboxes across the United States. Officials have warned the shipments of mystery seeds, which appear to have originated in China, could be invasive plant species.

So far, however, the species appear to be innocuous. At least 14 of the seed species had been identified as of July 29, according to Deputy Administrator Osama El-Lissy of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. They includes mustard, cabbage and morning glory as well as herbs like mint, sage, rosemary and lavender. He said hibiscus and roses were also found.

CBS News confirmed that residents in all 50 states have reported receiving the suspicious packages of seeds. The USDA said if you receive the packets of seeds, do not plant them and contact your state plant regulatory official.

Although the species identified so far are harmless, plant experts have warned that seeds from other parts of the world could damage crops.

State agriculture officials in Virginia warned, "Invasive species wreak havoc on the environment, displace or destroy native plants and insects and severely damage crops. Taking steps to prevent their introduction is the most effective method of reducing both the risk of invasive species infestations and the cost to control and mitigate those infestations."

Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller urged people to be cautious. "It could be a bacteria. It could be another virus, some kind of invasive species," Miller told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth.

Robin Pruisner, a state seed control official at the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship in Iowa, told Reuters that she has heard reports of a coating of possible insecticide or fungicide on the seeds, which could prove especially harmful to crops.

"I've had people describe to me that the seeds are coated with something purple. I haven't had it in my hands yet, but it sounds an awful lot like a seed treatment," she said.

The Agriculture Department has said the packages are most likely part of a "brushing" scam, in which a seller sends unsolicited items to someone and then posts false positive customer reviews to boost sales.

"Brushing scams involving seed packets in international mail shipments are not uncommon," the USDA said. "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has intercepted similar seed shipments in recent years."

Phylissia Clark of the Better Business Bureau told CBS DFW that if you are a victim of brushing, "your identity has been compromised."

The take I get out of this is if you are one of the ones who got the seeds, then check your Identity because it may be compromised. The packages showed looks just like the seeds I purchased from China over the years which I have been ripped off and were weed/grass seeds. I am surprised I was not one of the ones who received them.