On Sep 25, 2006, at 3:18 PM, James Waddick wrote: > Dear All; > I have found import getting more and more difficult. Last > year I had a box go through USDA,Customs, Border Patrol and Homeland > Security. Every stop took phone calls and ended in confusion. It > took over a month for the box to arrive after 2 days in transit from > China. > It's sad that the import part of the equation has gotten so much slower than the transport part of the equation. I very recently had a friend send me a few seeds of one species from Australia. The seeds were small enough and few enough in number that I just didn't want to go through the whole official process. So yes, I confess, I illegally smuggled them in an envelope via the regular postal service. He posted them in Sydney on a Wednesday evening, California time, and they arrived Saturday morning at my house! I don't believe I could have gotten them any faster via ordinary mail from the East Coast of this country! And so far, no kudzu-like vine has engulfed my house yet. ;-) --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USDA Zone 10a