California's "modus operandus" rules.... NOT!!!!!

From: SNALICE at aol.com on 1997.02.08 at 22:32:45(307) To anyone who can tell me: I recentenly tried to get a catalogue from an eastern nersery who informed the forum that it would no longer be sending catalogs to California. The reason for this is the California agriculture inspection process. CA. aparently confiscated two different shipments comming from this particular nersery and held them until they were beyond life, even though the reasons were bogus. In the first case, the dead plants were sent back to the nersery, and the second case the dead plants were sent on to the customer! My question is this: I ordered some wonderfull Caladium tubers from Richard Mansell and I'm wondering if they will meet the same fate? I hope this is an approiate question for this forum, but can anyone enlighten me on this one? Thank you Sue

From: Hermine Stover <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 1997.02.09 at 05:03:46(308) At 04:32 PM 2/8/97 -0600, SNALICE@aol.com wrote: >To anyone who can tell me: >I recentenly tried to get a catalogue from an eastern nersery who informed >the forum that it would no longer be sending catalogs to California. The >reason for this is the California agriculture inspection process. CA. >aparently confiscated two different shipments comming from this particular >nersery and held them until they were beyond life, even though the reasons >were bogus. In the first case, the dead plants were sent back to the >nersery, and the second case the dead plants were sent on to the customer! > My question is this: I ordered some wonderfull Caladium tubers from >Richard Mansell and I'm wondering if they will meet the same fate? I hope >this is an approiate question for this forum, but can anyone enlighten me on >this one? > >Thank you >Sue +More > > >Good Golly Miss Molly! (as Little Richard used to say) but I may be in the wrong business. I am in California and regularly ship and receive plant material from, let's say all over the world. and whereas I have run into overzealous inspectors who do very naughty things, it has not happened for years; nor often. Perhaps 3 times in 18 years. It would be of some interest to know if the nursery targeted had a history with the AG department. It is not something I would allow to pass without considerable challenge. There are other mail order companies in the Agriculturally-sensitive states like Florida, Arizona, California, and I forgot who, and they conform to some inspection and paper and red tape and all goes well. It is of interest to me that when I lived in Boston and received exotic shipments, many of them with live scorpions and other pets included, the Ag dept had no interest. All such things were presumed to be too tropical to survive in Boston, and parcels were not even opened for inspection! Hermine and Roger Stover E-mail hermine@endangeredspecies.com roger@endangeredspecies.com

From: plantnut at shadow.net (Dewey Fisk) on 1997.02.09 at 05:06:59(309) As a former State Plant Inspector from the State of Florida, I can tell you that the 'Rules of Californina" are erratic at best. The situation, that you described, of confiscation is certainly not unusual. Sometimes, it seems that even Phytosanitary Certificates did not work. I wish you well getting plants into California. The best way, as a private person, that I have found is to mail them with no identification on the package.. This way, they don't know. Dewey +More Dewey E. Fisk, Plant Nut THE PHILODENDRON PHREAQUE Davie, Florida 33328 FAX: (954) 680-0305 e-mail: plantnut@shadow.net

From: len at surfer.pcsonline.com (Leonard Dolatowski) on 1997.02.09 at 05:09:42(310) To anyone who can tell me: I recentenly tried to get a catalogue from an eastern nersery who informed the forum that it would no longer be sending catalogs to California. The reason for this is the California agriculture inspection process. CA. aparently confiscated two different shipments comming from this particular nersery and held them until they were beyond life, even though the reasons were bogus. In the first case, the dead plants were sent back to the nersery, and the second case the dead plants were sent on to the customer! My question is this: I ordered some wonderfull Caladium tubers from Richard Mansell and I'm wondering if they will meet the same fate? I hope this is an approiate question for this forum, but can anyone enlighten me on this one? Thank you Sue +More Hello Sue! This is not an uncommon situation. We have friends in the plant business, here in Florida that often send plants to California with a similar situation occuring. I don't think it will be too long, before alot of growers stop sending plants to California. Len

From: Hermine Stover <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 1997.02.09 at 16:04:06(311) At 11:07 PM 2/8/97 -0600, Dewey Fisk wrote: >As a former State Plant Inspector from the State of Florida, I can tell you >that the 'Rules of Californina" are erratic at best. The situation, that >you described, of confiscation is certainly not unusual. Sometimes, it >seems that even Phytosanitary Certificates did not work. I wish you well >getting plants into California. The best way, as a private person, that I >have found is to mail them with no identification on the package.. This >way, they don't know. >Dewey +More > >Dewey E. Fisk, Plant Nut >THE PHILODENDRON PHREAQUE >Davie, Florida 33328 >FAX: (954) 680-0305 >e-mail: plantnut@shadow.net > > >Yes a private party can do thit and only the plant is lost. but a commercial mail-order nursery may not or I think the penalty is death. I have encounterd some nurseries in New Jersey who will not ship to CA because they feel they could not meet our standards. But look ath the mail-order nurseries who do, like Logees, and White Flower Farms and all those places who davertise in plant magazines. They do not report any unusual problem. each state has its own highly specific regulations. Plants grown in Florida soil may not come in, because the nematodes in Florida soil would be very ahppy here, along with our native and other introduced nematodes. and some of the other rules seem silly. But by no means is it common. Many of my friends and customers regularly have plant material shipped to them here in CA. But we all fear the Florida agricultureal inspectors. > > > 3 acres of California-grown Bamboo, Palms, Cycads, Sansevierias, Exotics. Visit us at http://www.endangeredspecies.com or (714)544-9505.e-mail to nursery@endangeredspecies.com

From: SNALICE at aol.com on 1997.02.09 at 16:07:35(312) Thank you for your response. I do hope you're right and mine does't end up being one of the '"few". Sue

From: SNALICE at aol.com on 1997.02.10 at 01:55:16(317) Thank you Hermine, I'm glad to have info. from CA, and yes we do have nematodes here. Those are the little things that eat up my carrots and beets every summer. Whether these are native or foreign, I can't say, but we do battle every year! This year I tried a beneficial nematode garden control which contained "Steimema Carpocapsae" and I won, so I guess they worked. Thanks again Sue

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