Orchids in South Africa?

[Fabolusus]

A good friend of mine is going home to South Africa for the holidays. She knows how obsessed I am with orchids and she wants to bring something home for me. Does anyone know anything about the native orchids of South Africa? I know Ansellia africana grows there...

[God.Jr]

wow thanx for that fabolusus....... i never new there where orchids native to SA now i'm on a mission to find them myself......if i find something i'll put a link here or something so you can go check it out.......

[God.Jr]

well i ran around google for a while and found this site that has a bit of speices that are indigenous to south africa, well so they clam, i plan to do some more research on this seeing as i am from SA i think it would only be proper for me to grow some....... thanx again for this interesting post it got me ampt......

click here------>Disa_Species

hope this can help.......

[Fabolusus]

Here are a few links I found. Does anyone have experience growing any of these? I really don't want to go through the trouble of shipping something if it won't grow here...






http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/ansellafric.htm

http://www.plantzafrica.com/frames/orchidfram.htm

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Bringing orchid plants into a country (yours) presents some serious problems. There are two documents you must have, or the orchids will be confiscated and distroyed. One is an Export Permit from the country of origin, and the other is a Phytosanitary Permit. If the nursery the plant is bought from is big enough, they may be able to arrange for these, but it won't be cheap. The other item that would help, but may be overlocked for only a plant or two hand carried into a major airport, is an Import Permit, which can be obtained from APHIS for free if you live in the USA. It would help in cases like this if you would update your profile with your location.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/permits/ppq_epermits.shtml
Plants in a flask should not require any of this, unless the agent at the airport is an ignoramous (it happens).

[jerrymeola]

I have been an importer (not orchids) and have to say as bad as Cynthia made it sound, it is really not the easy. Close to impossible actually and prohibitively expensive for a hobbyist.

Export permits will cost several hundreds of dollars. Few if any growers know how to do it. Importing on this side will also require a customs broker for several hundred dollars more, and a quarantine by the government for which you will pay. They must be bare root as any growing medium is illegal.

It is highly impractical to import less than a thousand orchids at a time and it takes months of preparation and scheduling.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I don't think the quarantine applies to orchids. Certainly I never had any orchids held in quarantine. The Photosanitary Permit and Export Permit can indeed cost a lot, tho it depends on the country and how regularly the nursery already does this kind of thing. I have been reading the requirements recently, and it does indeed look like a few plants brought into this country without an import permit will be allowed in luggage IF the airport has an inspection station on site at that airport, but the other 2 documents are still needed. I used to import orchids to LAX, and the inspection station was a few miles away, and a bonded carrier was needed. Now I find that they have opened an inspection station at the airport, and it appears the bonded carier is no longer needed. I have not actually imported recently, so there are a few points I am not sure of. It used to be, if you had all the required docs included in the package, you could have the plants sent by airmail, and there was no need for an agent to handle the paper work at the port of entry. The package went to the inspection station by mail, and when done with the inspection, the station would put it back into the mail for delivery. Sending the plants by any other means meant hiring a customs broker who did all the paper work and hired a bonded carrier for you. I used to do the paper work myself to avoid paying an agent, but during good economic times it was tough getting a bonded carrrier to get the plants to the inspection station in anything like a reasonable amount of time.

[Fabolusus]

Wow, I wasn't aware that it was so illegal! Well you've all dashed my hopes of having a small piece of Africa in my grow room. Oh well...

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Ask your friend to bring back pictures for you.

[Daniel S. Barrett]

Hi, On Ebay there is a seller there that sell plants from Africa, in fact he calls his buisness "Africana" I think is what it's called, anyway, he sells species from Africa that are propagated in a nursery there, & sent by flask, you get 4 plants for 1 price, and the procedes goes to protecting wild species from being poached, and sold on the Black market.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

As I said some where above, flasks are OK.

[agarrat]

A new orchid was discovered in S.africa recently this year. At a height of over 2000 feet in the mountains

[solay]

Sounds like I have no chance of getting orchids from the Philippines then. I started thinking about it recently cause I travel there every January for vacation. Anyway, I'm assuming the import requirements are the same there too.

Funny thing is I buy orchids there and admire them until I have to leave. Then they are not well taken care of and die. The following year I do it all over again. The prices are unbeatable. Blooming dendrobiums for a buck! Not to mention the vandas.

Too bad can't bring back plants from our travels. Of course unless you smuggle them in. That's a thought.