....One if by land and two if by sea and I on the phone with california
shall be....

Most wholesale FEDEX shipments leaving Hawaii have a stop over in the
CA.

Here are quoted portions of two of the emails I got this morning:

1.)
"Due to the detection of the light brown apple moth (LBAM) in several
California counties, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has imposed
quarantine on ALL plants leaving Hawaii. In response to this
quarantine, the Plant Quarantine Branch of the Hawaii Department of
Agriculture (HDOA) has established a policy requiring all shipments of
plants leaving Hawaii to be inspected prior to shipping, effective May
9, 2007. "

2.)
" As by now most of you have heard about LBAM ( light brown apple
moth) that has been found in California (source unknown?) that has
turned the world of exporting plants out of Hawaii upside down since
the moth has been quietly present here for the last 100 years (never
heard of it until now...)!! First California DOA jumps in & then UDSA
and now we have arrived at the place of.....................NO shipments anywhere in
the USA without a physical inspection and Phytosanitary certificate!
Did I mention that this moth only lives at elevations of around 4,000
feet???? So, now we have a limited number of Ag inspectors that will
be racing around the islands inspecting plants by the thousands (all
plants, not just orchids) for export that are primarily grown between
100 & 2,000' so that USDA doesn't totally wipe out the Hawaii
Agriculture Export Industry."

Some of the hawaiin vendors seem a bit more paniced than others. I
guess panic level depends on weekly gross shipments. These two quoted
sections I cut-n-pasted here are from some wholesale hawaiin shippers
I have delt with. My 'run for the hills' comment was somewhat tongue
in cheek. I really don't know what's going on except for these and a
few other emails from my regualr suppliers I found in my inbox this
morning. I was just amused at the tone from these wholesalers and
especially the various costs they quoted in their emails for the new
inspection requirements. Probably many will just absorb the fees and
say nothing, Probably many smaller retail venodrs don't even know
about this yet.

AND probably a few retail level *orchid* shipments through and into
California will get trapped by inspectors THERE. I do not know....