Cuttings from USA to Canada

[pacifica]

Hi Members, A friend of mine in the States wants to send some cuttings to me in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. Is that possible or not as I was told that it might be some restriction between the two countries. Anybody knows about ?

[WillsC]

Not legal, tell him to send anyway. Worst that will happen if they are found is they will be confiscated. I would say the odds of being confiscated US to Canada is about 1/100,000

[pacifica]

Thanks very much. I will tell same to my friend to see if he likes to try to send me or not.

[Vincent_15]

Hi pacifica, go on the site of the canadian border agencie. From what i'm reading we can ...

[TylerJ]

You can (legally) if you have the proper documentation (phytosanitary certificate, import docs., etc.) but people do it frequently anyways usually with no troubles.

[lilfiggy]

now that is a twist because there is a nursery in BC that I want some figgys from......they won't ship to US....

[TylerJ]

No because you are from out of country.... and most retail nurseries won't issue Phytosanitary Certificates because that is a costly procedure for them. Wholesale nurseries are a different story.

Last year I bought some raspberry plants from Nourse Farms out of the US but they only charged me $25 for the Phyto which was a steal. Most times phyto's are $75 to $100+ alone. I then had to apply for the import permit on the Canadian side which was only $20 or so for the small order I had. Even still $45 for documentation was pretty good considering the plants weren't available yet in Canada so it was worth it for me.

[pacifica]

Vincent & Tyler : Noted with many thanks. I better tell my friend not to send to be trouble free.

[TylerJ]

Like WillsC says above.. the only trouble would be it gets stopped at the border and that really is a rarity... from what I've heard. Especially if its just cuttings. I was just pointing out that by the books... you need documentation.

[Californiacuban]

Resurrecting this one as I search and this is the closest I've seen.

Can anyone give their experience on the most cost effective way to ship a few cuttings to Canada? Nothing huge and heavy, just 2-10 cuttings or so in a small bubble mailer, standard cutting package.

I'll do some more googling but thought I'd ask you all.

[Johnson1]

USPS is likely the lowest cost.

[angelad]

Let me start by saying that officially it is not legal to import cuttings without the proper documentaion, as mentioned above. However, if a Canadian decides to order cuttings from someone in the U.S.(without documentation) then they are taking a chance of possibly not receiving the cuttings. I found this out the hard way. In my case, the cuttings were returned to the original sender and I received a letter saying that it was not legal to import the cuttings.

p.s. The U.S. seller gave me a full refund but did NOT have to do that (although I appreciated it!)

[tinyfish]

USPS First Class International package and thats comes with tracking. That service is good upto 4 pounds.

[TorontoJoe]

Be careful

[Californiacuban]

This is one of my all time favorite skits about the US border patrol on the Canadian portal

https://youtu.be/DFcIH2tK2iM

[ginamcd]

In my experience in the northeast, the VT/CA border has the most laid back border guards. ME is also pretty easy. NY border agents on both sides are a bit more...prickly. Only other place we ever crossed was the MI/CA border and I recall it was pretty uneventful.

[TorontoJoe]

I have to admit... I've wondered how many Ourfigs members we have that are actually customs or border guards.... hmmm

[grasshopper]

A bull thought my mid-size rental was a competition in Banff and ramped into the car. We happened to be the smallest car in the vicinity and we didn't even see that bull at first. Because there was another one we were taking pictures on the other side of the road.