In message m, Joe B.
writes
Can anyone tell me- is it possible to import plants from the USA (or other
non EEC country)?

I'd like to order some begonias that I can't find on sale anywhere in the UK
and I wonder if legally I can do this, or if there are restrictions that ,ake
this impossible.

It is possible, but it can be prohibitively expensive to do it privately
for small numbers of plants. You will need phytosanitary certificates
from the grower and paperwork from DEFRA for customs & excise.

Basically they have to be pretty special plants before it is worthwhile.
And if they are too rare you run into CITES restrictions and still more
expense.

Beware that some of the admin costs scale with number of species
imported (so a mixed bunch of one off plants can get *very* expensive).

Regards,
--
Martin Brown