Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Primula => Topic started by: bibliofloris on July 10, 2018, 01:56:53 AM
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So, I knew that the process for importing seeds to the US had gotten much more complicated since the last time I did it. I applied for my small lots of seed permit, followed all the instructions, and placed a small order with Barnhaven for some primrose seeds.
Now, I've been contacted by the US inspector, who is requiring the genus & species for each packet within 10 days, and tells me he must otherwise presume my seeds are endangered species and seize them.
I've contacted Barnhaven, and I'm sure they'll do their best to help me explain what jack-in-the-green and juliana primroses are to the inspector. But if anyone has dealt with this before, or has any tips, resources, or sympathy, I'd really appreciate it. I understood not to order unidentified or mixed primula species, but I didn't realize garden hybrids would be such an issue. I support protecting endangered species, but I'd also really like to receive my non-endangered seeds.
Here's what I ordered (all seeds):
Border auriculas
Show & Alpine auriculas
Striped auriculas
Barnhaven Doubles
Enthusiast's Seed Mix (hose-in-hose, gallygaskins, jack-in-the-green, etc.)
Jack-in-the-green seed mix
Gold-Laced Polyanthus
Silver-Laced Polyanthus
Primula juliana seed mix
Is Primula x polyanthus the currently accepted name for the polyanthas? What about the julianas?
Thanks for any help,
Kelly
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Replying to my own post to say that Barnhaven answered right away with a nice letter explaining them to the inspector — hopefully that will do the trick!
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Would be interesting to know how Barnhaven explained them, Kelly.
I'd have said they were all forms of garden naturalised forms of non-endangered species like vulgaris and auricula. Would that be enough?
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Makes me wonder what Google is for........................
Longer they spend with them more likely they are to be endangered
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Makes me wonder what Google is for........................
To maximise income as a result of advertising and to pay as little Corporation Tax in the UK as possible?
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Would be interesting to know how Barnhaven explained them, Kelly.
I'd have said they were all forms of garden naturalised forms of non-endangered species like vulgaris and auricula. Would that be enough?
Similarly to that, yes, with P. veris and P. elatior too (and P. juliae for the julianas.)
Fingers crossed it will be enough! If not, me and my reference books will be headed down to the port...
To be fair to the inspector (now that I’m not freaking out quite so much), I hear their role covers animals, food service, and a variety of other things as well, so it was perhaps unreasonable for me to expect them to know all about primroses.
Lessons learned before the Seed Exchange, I suppose!
Kelly
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Kelly, I hope you're a member of the American Primrose Society; if not, I encourage you to consider joining. The seed exchange alone is worth the membership dues and is a great way to obtain seeds without the APHIS issues.
Sally
South of Lewiston, Idaho Zone 5ish
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Thanks for the recommendation, Sally - I’m not yet, but will consider it!
Kelly
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All my primrose seeds arrived safely today — phew!!
In case anyone else is nervous about this, Barnhaven was lovely and helpful throughout. In the future, I would probably ask them to note ‘Primula hybrids, all seeds originated in France’ or something similar on the invoice, to hopefully save them extra work later. Apparently “primroses” did not equal “primula” for the inspector.
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I know that bibliofloris has not posted in about 2 years.
For whatever help it may be, to those still here, Monica Little at the Seatac PPQ is very knowledgable, friendly, and helpful. For anyone curious Seatac is an abbreviation for Seatle-Tacoma; but it is actually the name of a town midway between them.