Is it legal for me to move my orchid collection across state lines?

[Gwenchanter]

Hi everyone,

I live in Florida and I'm moving to California and I would like to move my orchid collection with me. I'm thinking as long as it's legal I will pack them all up in boxes and ship them to my aunt in California via priority mail or something like that. The details as to how I'm going to be packing them need to be ironed out but I have heard tell of a lady trying to cross state lines into California with her van packed with orchids and they confiscated them all! I don't know if she had illegal orchids or something but mine are all hybrids (no species orchids) so I don't see why there would be a problem because I have ordered orchids from other states and had no problem receiving them in the mail. Thanks for any info.

[cnarciso]

The safest approach would probably be to contact their department of agriculture and ask. I know that a lot of states, especially states heavy in agriculture like California have regulations regarding the importation of plants even from other states in order to control the spread of disease. Even houseplants can sometimes be subject to these regulations. The safest approach in my opinion would be to contact their department of agriculture and the Florida department of agriculture as well after compiling a list of your plants and make sure that neither state has any regulations regarding the import/export of your plants.

Alternatively you could just try mailing them, but that would be taking a big risk, not worth risking your 'chids in my opinion when all you have to do is make a couple phone calls.

[phalaephila]

Here's what I found when I googled "moving plants into California":

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/factshe...ngPlantsCA.pdf

There are other webpages there, as well, with more information.

[Brotherly Monkey]

might be easier to contact a vendor from the state that you have a relationship with, or even a CA orchid society.

That way you're not stuck trying to sparse complicated legalese

[Jerry Delaney]

I have moved my orchid collection a number of times, from Kansas City to Baltimore, Baltimore to Illinois, and Illinois to California. The url advice is quite sound. In each of these cases, I just requested a number of empty boxes from the moving company, packed the orchids in them and put them on the moving van. They are tough plants and most never knew they were moved (or if so, didn't show it). You need to make sure you don't have "native" soil with any plants you bring in to CA (I think it is a fire ant thing). One thing I did do for the move to CA was I had an APHIS inspector in Illinois come and inspect the collection and give me a certificate that the plants were "disease and pest free". I don't know if that made any difference but I had no problems in getting them into the state.

[orchidsamore]

Jerry gave you a good solution if you can get a local inspector.

As a commercial vendor we are inspected at least once a year and spot checks at any time.

The fear is nematodes mostly but fire ants are a strong second.

There is less of a problem with orchids than soil potted plants, but a legal piece of paper can solve many problems before they occur.

The link from phalaephia is the law but what 'sterile' means is subject to the inspector's judgemnet. Internationally it means all medium allowing only bare root.

You have very little risk of California inspectors checking postal shipments as opposed to driving them in your car.

Commercial shipments have a rubber stamp on the outside saying they are pest free.

Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii also have restrictions.

[Gwenchanter]

Thanks all for the very good information!!