New import rules (Canada)
Diane Whitehead (Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:45:33 PST)

A delegate to the iris convention here last spring brought a lot of
iris seeds to be donated to registrants. The seeds were seized at
Border Services so I investigated and sprung them, though it took two
days, correspondence with Ottawa and a trip out to the plant
inspector's office.

The customs officer had gone through an online questionnaire and had
made a wrong turn somewhere, because she ended up at a page that
referred to "seed", a term for small potatoes to be used for planting,
and said they should be destroyed.

Somewhere in the series of questions was one that asked if the seeds
were from a plant with rhizomes. The answer in our case should have
been 'no', as the type of iris is one that does not have rhizomes.
However, the officer was not to be expected to know all the many kinds
of iris root structures, and she was being conscientious.

Diane Whitehead
Victoria BC Canada