SRGC 73rd Seed Exchange (2019-2020)

[Jan Jeddeloh]

My seed finally arrived today.  It was processed by APHIS in Seattle on February 6th (after Joyce talked to them) and nothing was confiscated.  A friend had his Tecophilia cyanocrocus and Lilium lijiangense seed confiscated for fungus yet mine sailed right through.  Go figure. I just opened the packets and the seed looks just fine.  No obvious signs of fungus or anything that might make an inspector think they should take a closer look.  Curiouser and curiouser.

[GordonT]

Starting to get concerned about wayward seeds. No sign of seeds yet, Feb 11th. It may be that they are waylaid somewhere... living in hope....

[johnw]

Starting to get concerned about wayward seeds. No sign of seeds yet, Feb 11th. It may be that they are waylaid somewhere... living in hope....

Gordon - We got our seeds a week to 10 days ago which we thought was rather late. They hadn't been opened at customs but most seeds aren't.  I wouldn't worry just yet.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

Urgent message  from Carolyn McNab of the  Seed Team -

Seed Distribution to Australia

Packets are being rejected by Australian customs and entire seed requests are now arriving in my letterbox.   Usually there is no indication which seed is the offending item so I am unable to resend what may be acceptable.   Please be aware that if you have not received your seeds, they may have travelled all the way there and back.   If you have any contact with customs, you may be able to check your order with them to see what is/is not on the BICON list.   Good luck.
Carolyn McNab

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Maggi,
one of my contacts in South Australia had the surplus seed from SRGC returned because two previously allowed primula were reclassified and the new name is not on BICON! In the past the Inspectors would have held the seeds and informed the recipient who might then be able to show that the species is allowed under a previous name. That's no longer an option.
Who at the SRGC Seed Team can my contact email with the details of the letter naming the "offending" species?
Thanks,
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Hello fermi,  I think it's  best  to contact  the  Bainbridges -  email to luckiehargs@btinternet.com

[fermi de Sousa]

Thanks, Maggi,
I'll let my contact know,
cheers
fermi

[Rick R.]

Hallelujah. 
-- My seed order arrived today. 

Clearly not the fault of the diligent SRGC Seed Team (to whom I am very thankful), the package's adventure is documented thusly:
-- Stamped by Royal Mail 24 Jan 20
10 days
-- received at the American inspection station 3 Feb 20
31 days
-- package released from inspection 5 Mar 20
5 days
-- in my mailbox today, 10 Mar 20

On the plus side, I did get all the seed that was sent.  (Apparently, there was no "unknown fungi" found.)

[gastil]

Hello,
First, thank you to the SRGC SeedEx volunteers.
My seeds have not yet arrived. I am looking for info how to contact the APHIS plant inspection station in San Diego which I specify on my yellow/green labels to see if there is a hold up I can resolve, such as mail-forwarding. Does anyone else use that station or know how to track a SmallLotsOfSeed package?
Lots of time at home to catch up on sowing, labeling, accession log, seedling photos, wishlist building,...
Gastil
in Santa Barbara where the Scilla hyacinthoides and Oncostema peruviana are putting out a buffet for bees.

[Maggi Young]

From Aphis.usda.gov       
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wcm/connect/aphis_content_library/sa_our_focus/sa_plant_health/sa_import/sa_pis


USDA, APHIS, PPQ
Plant Inspection Station
9777 Via de la Amistad, Room 140
San Diego, CA 92154
Phone (619) 661-3316 - Fax (619) 661-3047

Does that  help?

[gastil]

Too funny. It did not occur to me to just telephone them! So I called and a nice person answered. My shipment has not been thru their station but she will ask the main office. Gosh. A real person and helpful. I am positively re-adjusting my expectations. Thank you Maggie.

[Maggi Young]

I   thought  this  was also appropriate  here  :

Originally  posted in Bulb Section :


(I'm going to post this here, but because it doesn't just affect South African bulbs, Admin might want to move it out as a new topic (not familiar enough with how the forum works to do this myself!))

As of this month, the UK Plant Health regulations have been amended so that ALL seeds imported from outside Europe need to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate. The Australasian Plant Society had a large order of seeds from Nindethana Seeds in Australia returned to the sender in February by UK customs marked 'No Phytosanitary Certificate'; when I looked at the latest information on the gov.uk website, there was a new version of the list of restricted plant material dated March 2020 which was different from that issued last year in that all seeds not specifically named and with specific restrictions are now classed as 'Regulated', which means that if coming from outside Europe they have to have a phyto.

This means that, if intercepted, seed orders from, for instance, Silverhill Seeds, are likely to be sent back to South Africa. Of course, small packages may not be picked up; I received a small order from Gordon Summerfield in February, about the same time the APS order was sent back. (It looks, by the way, as if the new version of the regulations was being put into force before they were actually published! I suspect the reason for the change is that opening and inspecting every package labelled as containing seeds to determine if specific items needed a phyto would have been way beyond customs' resources, so they just put a blanket requirement on all seeds.)

I presume that the same restrictions would apply to seed orders from seed exchanges like NARGS and NZAGS, as I can find no sign that there are any exemptions to these rules (though I would love to be corrected on that point.) The APS is waiting for further clarification from contacts in DEFRA, but I thought I ought to post this information now as anyone who is thinking of ordering seed from, say, South Africa, might want to wait to see if we can find out definitively what the situation is.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings at a time when we really all need cheering up!

[fermi de Sousa]

Does this spell the end of the Seedexes?

[Maggi Young]

Does this spell the end of the Seedexes?

Who knows, fermi - who knows anything  anymore!

[Jan Jeddeloh]

FYI for US folks.  Joyce Fingerhut  (alpinegarden@comcast.net) still wants to hear from you if APHIS has confiscated any of your foreign seeds.  This includes seed from seed exchanges and privately ordered seed.  She's keeping track of confiscations to see if she can figure out what's going on.  So help her out and let her know about any problems.