I live in BC; will be visiting Seattle soon and may wish to bring home spring bulbs or plants purchased in/near Seattle. How do I set about obtaining the 'phytosanitary' certificate that I will need in order to do this honestly?
This is a certificate issued by the USDA/APHIS and is usually arranged by the nursery that you buy the plants from. I don't believe that all nurseries provide this paid service so I would advise you to check with them before you buy.
Thanks! I think there is a way to do it other than through the nursery - does anyone else know? I haven't found th info on the USDA/APHIS websites.
Expect you would have to arrange to have your plants inspected by Washington Agriculture authorities to fill out a phyto. Not sure how simple that would be , as they may need to know of the originating nursery of each plant. Had some plants phyto OK'd by a Washington inspector, but he wasn't allowed to accept cash. Sent the funds by IMO to the Wash. Agriculture dep't.
Realize Ag Canada has to look at the phyto and inspect the plants too, but they don't make up phytos for US plants do they ?
He was on site at a PNW Garden show, so it was quite straightforward. They had a few tables set up taking care of phytos for the show visitors buying plants. Cost was only $5-10. The cost when ordering from nurseries by mail order seems to be $30-50 . The plants and phyto still need to be inspected by Ag Canada when coming into Canada. May be best to call Ag Canada and ask, office in New West I think. Pretty helpful once you get somebody familiar with the regs, and they may know more about contacting Wash. Ag people. That was a few years ago , so there could be some changes. Might be simpler to order from a nursery here, that imports from the US, if they can get what you'd like. The Wash. inspectors used to make rounds to some of the nurseries down there, so if you had an order with a nursery ,you could pick it up after inspection. Expect they still do this.
