And I knew better.....WARNING

[kavanaru]

Silla-Glamour,

maybe you are right about your nursery, but the problem is that often those other nurseries aver indeed very aware of the situation with CITES, Phytosanitary Permits, import and export certificates.. and they just ignore them...

I can tell you why I stopped buying from asian vendors in ebay. 2 tries, all bad experiences:

1.- Bought a plant I could only find in Ebay from a vendor in Singapore. I checked in advance for permits, and even paid for Cites and Phytosanitary certificates. I had an import permit here. Finally, after a long month (needed for obtaining the permits), the plant arrived... no permits at all included, and "Thai Dolls" declared... Luckily I could show the people at the customs all e-mails, bill for CITES and Phytosanitary and import permit... I received no fines and was told I could keep the plant (which, by the way, was obviously wild collected!). I felt not confortable with the plant and the plant was donated to the botanical garden. I tried to contact the nursery, even complain via ebay, but they just disappeared...

2.- Decided to give a second try, this tiem Thailand, same procedure as above... plant never arrived, no refunds... Ebay and Paypal reply: that person deleted his/her account we cannot track it...

you mention that USDA and other agencies have mistaken hybrids as species.. but... How do you differentiate a hybrid from a species, without flowers? sometimes with flowers it is also difficult... On teh other hand, CITES is very clear, and a permit is needed for both hybrids and species... Yes, I do not agree with how CITES is applied in some places (especially not in the USA), but hey.. that's the current law...

Unfortunately, due to those irresponsible nurseries, all asian nurseries are placed in the same pot... I hate cliches, but this is the way they are created (same as all latinos being drug dealers, all USAmerican being ignorants and stupid, and many others!)

I know some serious asian nurseries, and I do buy from them, but not via Ebay. Some of them can provide CITES and Phytosanitary, some of them cannot. In this last case however, they come from time to time to Europe, or can send plants with other nurseries coming to europe. That's now my way to get asian plants....