I have driven to LA a couple of times.

I can guaran-d__n-tee you, on I-10, they have STOP Signs at the border
to California! Permanent signs...looks like toll booths....but they
don't want your money...just your plants...Stop signs on the highway!

We stopped, the fella asked if we had any fruits or vegetables, we
looked at him funny and said, 'No!?!?!?'

He said, 'Ok' and we drove on.

About as weird as getting stopped at a border guard temporary
check-point this side of El Paso coming home and being asked if
everyone in the car was from the US!

Anyway, they will definately ask and they will definately throw them
on a pile of potted plants on the side of the road.

That said, I've never taken plants in so I wouldn't know how to get
them past the border. Maybe a phytosanitation certificate from a local
grower?

John



"Hope Munro Smith" wrote in message
. 83...
(Frankhartx) wrote in
:

From: Hope Munro Smith
Newsgroups: rec.gardens

Does anyone have experience with the border check point and what
the
procedure is? I don't want to bring a bunch of plants and then
have
them thrown out at the border, I'd rather give them away. Thanks
for

Border check point? Is California now another country? If it has
border check points then it ought to be..

They do indeed have check points:

BORDER STATION INSPECTIONS

Vidal Border StationAgricultural inspections on all private and
commercial vehicles are conducted at sixteen border inspection
stations
located on major highways throughout the State (six at the Oregon
border,
five at the Nevada border, and five at the Arizona/Mexico border).

More than 33.5 million vehicles were monitored at the California
border
agricultural inspection stations in the 2000 calendar year,
including
24.5 million automobiles, 6.5 million commercial trucks, more than
706
thousand recreational vehicles, and more than 40 thousand commercial
buses. These figures represent an eight percent increase from the
previous year.

There were over 70 thousand lots of prohibited plant material
intercepted
at the border inspection stations. These lots were infested with
plant
pests and/or were not properly certified for entry into California.
More
than 5 thousand samples of suspected pests were submitted by border
station staff to the Department's Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch for
identification during the year.

Serious pest finds in the Year 2000 included gypsy moth, imported
fire
ant, boll weevil, Mexican fruit fly, zebra mussel, pecan weevil,
Japanese
beetle, Oriental fruit fly, Mexican fruit fly, European corn borer,
burrowing nematode, musk thistle and diffuse knapweed.