Oh - I need to do some updating!
I'm still waiting for your seeds to arrive, Hemlady. Shouldn't take too much longer! I've received a few lots now from sellers, and postage time from US has ranged between 1-4 weeks.
And I've learned a bit along the way. Apparently Aust. is not quite as with it as New Zealand customs! Things don't get onto the approved species list until someone specifically requests to import it and applies for it to be added. After the application is made, Canberra takes between 3-6 months to research it and be convinced it isn't the next Patterson's Curse or Lantana... then it makes it onto the permitted species list!
While New Zealand has recognised the complexity of Hemerocallis breeding and classified all hybrids as a permitted group, Australia still has many Hemerocallis species unassessed - including H. plicata - and doesn't recognise hybrids as a group. (Hence the genetic heritage hunt
) This means that complex modern hybrids as already exist and are traded within Australia, technically wouldn't be allowed in if anyone nominated H. plicata as part of the genetic heritage....
Because it is so labourious and slow to change the list, it seems the horticultural standard around this is just to call something an H. fulva hybrid and get on with business.
But it irks me! I have the paperwork here to get H. plicata assessed, and I was going to add a bunch of other neglected species and hybrids as a group while I'm at it. Whether I go ahead ...or leave a beauracratic leviathan to its wrongness
And for all this fuss, how many seed lots into Australia actually get inspected? I trust myself to inspect and destroy anything that might be a real risk more than I trust the system.
umm... did that sound like a rant that might have been inspired by a week on the phone with customs agents?
But in the end I have babies growing, they are not a threat to our ecosystem and I'm happy
