Gardening and Horticulture - Mail Restrictions for Plants, Seeds, etc.

Hi All,

We had a previous discussion on DIY about sending plants and other such items from state to state. I think it would be best to call your local post office and have them check their forbidden list. There are stiff fines for violators.

I did find sites for post offices and some other tidbits -

Links for Postal Services -
http://www.usps.com/
http://www.postcom.org/

Mail restrictions -
http://new.usps.com/cgi-bin/uspsbv/scripts/content.jsp

Interesting!
http://geography.about.com/science/geography/library/weekly/aa112300a.htm

Hawaii restrictions
http://hawaiianair.com/cargo/govt/govt_goods.asp

City information
http://www.placesnamed.com/default.asp

If anybody else has anything to add, please do!

Thanks,

Gami

I talked with my local post office this morning. I was told that there are no restrictions in regard to mailing plants, but he advised me to mark "Live Plant/s" on the pkg. because they might attempt to re-deliver sooner than they might otherwise. (We live in a rural area, which I wouldn't have thought that it would make a difference, but we have found since living here for 8 years that in some ways it does.) I read from one of the sites that you listed (Thank you, by the way!) and I don't see that the information is contradictory in regard to restrictions.

~mlminin

Hi M,

I won't mention the state because I'm not sure, but in our discussion we had on another board, one state forbid plants being sent and the fine was $10,000. That's nothing to sneeze at. I believe a couple of more states were mentioned also. I don't think the fear is so much within the states, but it definitely should be checked out and especially if shipping to other countries.

You meet people from EVERYWHERE on garden boards. That's one of the things that makes it FUN! :)

Gami

The rule is set by each state in question, not by the post office. The post office probably has nothing at all to do with the enforcement. The state's agriculture department is the one that makes the rules on this, and it's to prevent insect pests from migrating and potentially damaging crops. Different states have different rules on different plants. This is why you see, in some catalogues for some items, "sorry, can not ship to Arizona" or what ever states they list.

So... to be safe I'd check with the agriculture dept. They may even have a web site, but it will be different for each state.

Thanks leu, you're right. The Post Office does have a THICK book on mailing restrictions tho. However, as I found out in my ordeal with Australia, they did NOT have a complete list. I consider myself lucky, and also the person I was mailing to, that nothing happened to either one of us. She said had I not declared the flower seeds that we would have both been in hot water.

Gami