Can You Bring Plants From Hawaii

15 years ago

back into the mainland? Like an orchid? Make a Wish is sending Nathan and his entire family (DD, SIL and Brother) to Hawaii for a week. They leave May 22. I'm wanting to send some money for an orchid from there if you can.

Leslie

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Comments (10)

OklaMoni
15 years ago
Seems to me like you should be able to. After all, Hawaii is a state of the US!

:)

Leslie, I googled and found this:

Returning Home
What you can't take: All baggage from Hawaii to the U.S. Mainland is subject to
pre-flight inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Restrictions on fruits,
plants, and other items from Hawaii to the Mainland are enforced to prevent the
spread of fruit flies and other hazardous plant insects and diseases. Non-certified
fruits, vegetables, flowers or plants cannot be taken in your checked or carry-on
baggage. Non-inspected agricultural items will be confiscated. Once you have
checked in for your flight you will be required to go through a security screening
process. Keep your boarding pass and picture identification card readily
accessible.

Moni... who of course, doesn't know for sure.

Here is a link that might be useful: more on that
dilly_dally
15 years ago
You have to check with the rules in your state if it can be allowed in. Some states have strict rules about what can be brought in.

Where I live, you cannot even bring in firewood to another county in some areas, and I have encountered the firewood rule when I have traveled too. Transporting certain types of live plants from county to county is banned too.

Also check with the airline about their rules regarding the transport of plants. Bringing a plant will definately hold you up when they go through checkpoint. The TSA may uproot the plant and check the soil for hidden objects. They don't care if it dies afterward. If you check the plant as luggage it has to be put in a special area so it does not freeze or suffer damage from decompression. It may be banned altogether from the plane due to the likelyhood of transporting pests with the plant.
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chisue
15 years ago
You can buy orchids in a lot of stores on the mainland these days.

What you can't often find is protea. In the islands you can even buy it at Costco but I never see it in my area (Chicagoland). I bring some home when we come back from Maui. (It also dries well.) Google it to see a photo. I don't know if you can buy a protea *plant*; I buy the cut flowers.

Where will the family visit in Hawaii? (We've been to the four major islands many times. Now we just go to Maui.) They'll have a wonderful time! May is a great month to visit. I'm wondering if the jacaranda trees may be blooming.
redcurls
15 years ago
If it is PACKAGED for transport by a company, you can. You CANNOT just uproot a plant from a yard or something and bring it along. Just like when leaving Florida...you can't take along BACKYARD fruit....but you can take fruit that is packaged for transport. There are shops at each Hawaiian airport that sell orchid plants for you to take home.
organic_donna
15 years ago
I believe you can only bring cut flowers.
Donna
carol_in_california
15 years ago
What Redcurls said.
nicki_in_niles
15 years ago
I'm not sure because I didn't try to, BUT I CAN tell you that they have soooo many beautiful plants there!
grammahony
Original Author
15 years ago
Hey Nicki, glad you chimed in. How was your trip? Where's the pictures.
I'll probably have DD get me one of the packaged one's if they aren't out of line price wise.
Leslie
bigfoot_liz
15 years ago
plants can only leave hawaii w/ agricultural stamps from an approved company that has passed inspections. if they are able to ship off the islands they should have stamps, unless they have such poor quality plants they fail inspections. if you are in CA or FL forget about landing in a plane & carrying on a plant w/soil/bark, seed, cutting, fruit, food...! CA has the MOST strict rules about what comes in & out of that state, FL has the second most strict. if you try to carry on one of the above mention products and they catch you on the CA or FL end it's a federal offense i believe. i'm guessing most other states, especially those who don't have much agriculture, are much less strict. one med-fly brought thru customs illegally on any of the above mentioned products can produce thousands of offspring, potentially ruining crops for yrs and yrs, & costing billions of $$ in losses.

i am in charge of shipping landscape plant materials via semi from NC to TX for the company i work for, we take sending our plants to other states very seriously. it only takes 1 shipment of 1 tiny virus, bug, weed or microbe into a region where that pest has never existed to ruin all plants and agriculture for centuries. several yrs ago Monrovia plants in CA shipped a few azalea standards into FL that were carriers of Sudden Oak Death which had never previously been found in FL. we have different oaks in FL from CA and suddenly old live oaks were dying off in months, it took months of researching to figure out what had happened, thousands of oaks have died since then. monrovia is pretty much banned from shipping much out of CA into FL now.

i would have them ship you plants back ~ liz

Here is a link that might be useful: hawaii ag rules
nicki_in_niles
15 years ago
Leslie, my trip was AWESOME!! I have tons of pics! Thanks for thinkin about me.