FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Does anybody know what is involved importing plants to Australia from overseas? I was looking at the Australian department of Environment website about importing live plants and animals and glazed over as it all seems such a hassle with getting approval from customs.

Has anybody in Australia ever purchased from flytrap care before? And if so was it an easy experience?

I remember when this website first started how I wished I was living in America just so I could purchase from flytrap care. If anything I think that says a lot about flytrap cares reputation. I remember you sold not only the plants but also the pots and medium, and remember I wished the local suppliers here did the same. As because Australia has no sphagnum peat bogs the way the northern hemisphere does we only have access to sedge peat which I think is no good for CPs. Although I remember when I used to own flytraps I just grew them in the peat I found at Bunnings, which I think was sedge peat, but they seemed to survive ok and grow.

If I was ever going to purchase anything it would be a flytrap store original such as the maroon monster although I see it is out of stock at this time.

Although we have a lot of local suppliers here I feel bad for not supporting this website and hope it is ok if I decide to just go for the easier option of purchasing plants here.

I live in the US, but I have seen and heard of people buying plants that are in tissue culture, as that's the only way to ship them internationally. So you would actually buy a tube of FTS Maroon Monster and end up with quite a few! You just have to deflask and clean the growing gel, and then harden them off.

Macca wrote:Has anybody in Australia ever purchased from flytrap care before? And if so was it an easy experience?

Australia is one of the few countries in the world to which we've not sent plants. The importation laws are very strict in Australia and I believe the import permits required to bring in even plants in tissue culture are prohibitively costly, which is really unfortunate.

I've always felt I lived in the wrong part of the world to make a hobby out of growing specific cultivars and species of carnivorous plants. It's a damn shame. NO ONE here sells the B52 fly trap, or any of the slim, long-petiole'd cultivars for that matter. I don't even know where I'd start looking for specific forms of Sarracenia genera... this page seems to list just about all Aus has access to. Tiffid Park seems to be the only real serious retail supplier for a wider variety of plants, most of the others are either wholesale, only stock Nepenthes, or just don't have the forms I'm looking for. Triffid also has a 'minimum $30' fetish (not including shipping), so I'd be forced to spend extra on plants I don't really want just to fill up my order.

Since this thread was last update over a year ago, I have successfully sent several shipments to Australia. In fact, I am sending another shipment very soon. I'm sure that some of the more interesting and desirable Venus fly trap cultivars will start showing up there in Australia.

Yes it is a bit costly to import plants to Australia but I have recently bought quite a few from the flytrap store. Biohazard, Wacky traps, DCXL, maroon monster, jaws, and I have a few more coming also.
There is also a guy who has some on eBay that he is selling at the moment of biohazard and Wacky traps. The starting bid is at 30 bucks but I saw that they have been going for 100 bucks by the end of the auction.

Thanks for the reply Matt, that consuls me somewhat. But all I really know about is the Phytosanitary cert. ($25... US?) I saw in another thread you made regarding shipping to other countries that a number, including Australia, had to also procure an... Import Permit? I see this detailed in yet another thread regarding 'APHIS', but in that instance it sounded like that only applied to the US... which is kind of odd, considering that thread was supposed to related to INTERNATIONAL orders. Is this permit business a one stop deal, or is it required per order, like the Phyto.?

Nice to know international shipping of these is working well for you, Bryndiana.

Bryndiana wrote:...biohazard and Wacky traps. The starting bid is at 30 bucks but I saw that they have been going for 100 bucks by the end of the auction.

Woah! $100 for a single fly trap? For a high class Nepenthes, sure, but... wow.

Mephiles wrote:I saw in another thread you made regarding shipping to other countries that a number, including Australia, had to also procure an... Import Permit?

Yes, that's correct. An import permit is required for anyone trying to import plants into Australia. I believe that it is good for one year after acquiring it. Bryndiana would be able to tell you more about that than I.

Yes the Import permit is good for 1 year and it's a bit of a process to get it. It must have all the details of the exporters you are wanting to import from as well. There is an application fee then a fee for each species of plant as well.
Once you have it you will still get stung by Quarantine that will charge you for the inspection and destruction of any cultures they think is contaminated then they might forget to release it back to the mail and so you will have to wait 2 weeks after inspection before you get it. My last order would have been in much better condition had Quarantine not held onto it for 2 weeks. Extremely painful process.

i've seen b52 listed a few times on ebay, some guy named "terroxyboy" on ebay lists them occasionally on ebay, usually at the start/mid season when he divides his plants
i have one, if i get any divisions ill let you know

Thanks for the offer Mufasa! But save your divisions for now, no sense wasting them on me when I'm in the middle of study and probably won't have the time to cultivate/monitor another plant for the time being. Next growing season... we'll see. I saw a previous thread about B52 in Aus, I think someone there mentioned the ebay name you gave, and that this seller actually used to be a member on here. I just figured that the availability of this one would be sporadic at best, but I might be able to make use of the seasonal timing you mentioned.

Bryndiana wrote:Yes the Import permit is good for 1 year and it's a bit of a process to get it. It must have all the details of the exporters you are wanting to import from as well. There is an application fee then a fee for each species of plant as well.
Once you have it you will still get stung by Quarantine that will charge you for the inspection and destruction of any cultures they think is contaminated then they might forget to release it back to the mail and so you will have to wait 2 weeks after inspection before you get it. My last order would have been in much better condition had Quarantine not held onto it for 2 weeks. Extremely painful process.

Yes, our government is proudly in the milking business. >_<' Can you roughly remember some of the prices attached to this rigmarole, like the 'per species' and quarantine fees? It might not even be worth it considering the plant could simply die due to the extra 2-week wait. Have you been able to nurse all your orders back to good health so far?
Lol, "We'll take your money, but we're still going to eat your plant... (swallows)"

Yes I have been able to nurse the majority of them back to health. A couple of them were too far gone it seems but I have ordered some replacements for them and they will hopefully get here without dramas this time.
As for the prices it was about $125 for the application fee then another $65ish? per species if I remember correctly. The Quarantine fees were about another $150 but this is variable depending on how many are inspected, their mood, destruction etc. Also the conversion of the aussie dollar to us dollar is quite terrible at the moment but you do need to take that into account as I forgot then at checkout I noticed the price jumped up again. Pretty costly exercise...
What Vfts are you after?

Bryndiana wrote:As for the prices it was about $125 for the application fee then another $65ish? per species if I remember correctly.

Yeesh. Is that the same price that has to be paid per renewal?

Yes I have been able to nurse the majority of them back to health. A couple of them were too far gone it seems but I have ordered some replacements for them and they will hopefully get here without dramas this time.

Or they might just eat them, as if to further impress upon you the government's perceived view of plant orders from outside the island being some form of wrong-doing.

The Quarantine fees were about another $150 but this is variable depending on how many are inspected, their mood, destruction etc.

Hmm... what are "bludgers"?

Also the conversion of the aussie dollar to us dollar is quite terrible at the moment but you do need to take that into account as I forgot then at checkout I noticed the price jumped up again. Pretty costly exercise...

All in the name of protecting our "Ausie" exporters. Brings a tear to my eye on days I see it crashed to .60US.
Sorry if I seem a bit impertinent, it's late and looking at your findings doesn't give me much hope for affordably ordering these overseas.

What Vfts are you after?

Well for starters I was considering a Royal Red, Big Mouth and B52. I like the idea of these three because I feel the first two are the best representatives of the all-red and low clumping cultivars, respectively, and the B52 because, seriously. Who doesn't want to see some of the almost-biggest traps ever? The good news is the 1st two are available at Triffid Park, along with Fine Tooth x Red and Sarracenia Leucophylla which I wouldn't mind using to pad out my order.

I've read various opinions on Big Mouth and how it compares to other low-growers like Fine Toothed x Red and Low Giant, and some people seem to not consider it all that spectacular. Noting that I might want to do a bit more comparative research to find a really nice prostrate grower. Also, a few entries caught my eye on Triffid's stock page, particularly the bottom three VFT items: 'G4xG37', 'G7xG14' and 'G16xG14'. If anyone knows anything about those three, PRAY TELL! Those crosses are too esoteric to find anything on. Also I should mention a funny little inconsistency I noticed; on their page, the 'G16xG14' is labelled as equalling "Megatraps x Dirk Ventham's Giant", but on the FlyTrapStore, Matt notes that the G16 is known as "Slack's Giant", and "Megatraps" as G17... so this can only mean that someone's confused.

Anyway, if I may go on a Sarracenia tangent briefly, I am curious about the Leuco about half way down on that same list, generically labelled "Red Veined". Reason being, I'd ideally like to hold out for a particular form called "Helmut's Delight"; apparently its white pigment goes lower down the pitcher than most other forms, making for a striking white-capped red-veined beauty. For all I know the Leuco sold at Triffid might well be that. It does look similar, though I'm no expert on the different forms. It wouldn't surprise me because I read somewhere it was actually 'found' in Aus.

Well thankyou for the intel, Bryndiana, I'll keep it in mind for if I wanted to fork out for some of those exclusive varieties.

Hi Bryndiana! It's been a while, but I finally got around to attempting to verify the charges you mentioned. I managed to find the Department of Agriculture's charging schedule for import permit applications and I noted the $125 charge for electronic lodgement and the $60 for "Category 1" assessment, much like what you mentioned.

You also mentioned the variable approx. $150 fee you paid for quarantine, but I don't know where I could check to see just what kind of fees to expect from that "service". Do you know, or were you just as surprised when you were billed for that amount?
Edit: Anyone else who can shed some light on that little facet of the process, feel free.

Hi Mephiles.
The charges at Quarantine are variable. For my first shipment they charged me 150 for inspection and destruction of a couple of cultures. I think they go charge by the time it takes for inspection and it might be a minimum of a half hour fee. My second shipment came in the mail without going through the Quarantine inspection process and so there was no extra charges so it is luck of the draw really it seems.