Hi Mary, I've been importing seed from a number of overseas sources to Australia for the past 4 years. Importation of seed into Australia is fairly simple and trouble free if the basic requirements of the Quarantine Authority are met - there are no phytosanitary certificate requirements for seed. For instance the seed needs to be clean, and properly labelled, and the label shouldnt contain the descriptor ' Mixed varieties' nor be on a noxious weed list. Otherwise the process is direct and fairly quick - all mail packets containing a declaration of seed are inspected and sent on to the addresse usually within a week. If the plant is not on the AQIS Plant database - the addresse is requested to fill in a booklet of information about the plant and provide some horticultural evidence or references indicating that the plant will not prove to be an agricultural weed. Hence there can be problems with seed labeled with and Sp? instead of a specific species name. However, AQIS the Quarantine Service, confiscated one of my parcels last year sent by a Clivia seed supplier. It arrived with a list of the Clivia crosses and each seed packet contained a code found on the list. The problem was that the list didnt match some of the codes on the packets and that the genus and species were actually not named on the list as only cultivar names were provided. Consequently the entire package was regarded as illegal and when this happens the Quarantine service either destroys the seed or asks you to pay a still fee for returning them to the sender. It was an expensive error. My favorite seed providers where service is excellent are : Silverhill Seeds, Penrock Seeds, Chiltern Seeds and the German Rare Plants site; and more recently I was delighted with South American plant seed from Maruo's Brazilian Plants list. Cheers Jim Lykos Blue Mountains Sydney Australia Zone 9 - 10 Mary Sue Ittner wrote: > Dear Australian subscribers, > > We have quite a number of people on this list from Australia. What are > your favorite sources for seed and bulbs? I know that you have trouble > importing a lot of things so I assume that many of you use sources in > Australia. > > Mary Sue > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > >