Troy,

Another great source for flasked species is Burleigh Park Orchids in
Australia. They export flasks directly to the USA at very reasonable prices,
and they have oodles of interesting species.

They charge for Phytosanitary, a relatively (last 2 years?) new thing for
importing flasks, but there is no CITES paperwork needed for sterile flasks.

I ordered two flasks of Jewel orchids from them at a total cost of USD$50
before the Phyto charges were needed and back before I was knowledgeable
enough to work with flasks and so I gave them to a friend, but the entire
process was easy.

Their export flasks contain 12-15 or so plants per flask.

http://www.speciesorchids.com/

In case you don't want to spend $200/$250 on a huge mother flask.

-Eric in SF

"Troy" wrote in message
...
This is sort of off topic. . .

I finally got my USDA import permit last week. I was thinking that maybe
we
could all pool together and get some flasks from taiwan or somewhere else.
It seems that flasks do not have to undergo the same CITES procedures, so
they can travel back on the plane and have a fast walkthrough the USDA
import inspection station.

I'd like everyone's thoughts. My best guess is that it would end up
costing
around $250-$300 (US) for a flask with an average of 30 plants. So the
cost
is about the same as retail, except that these would be 'exotic.'

Best,
Troy