Importing plants

mrs danvers

published 1 April 2006

Dear Mrs Danvers, I am going on holiday to Italy this spring and would like to bring some plants back. What do you suggest? There are all sorts of regulations about taking plants between countries (potatoes are particularly dangerous, being classed with firearms and explosives). So you should read up about the restrictions on moving plants and also about the possiblity of having a bureaucrat make a follow-up visit a few months later. Having said that, seeds are easy: no regulations, no problems about keeping them alive, no extra weight. In fact, foreign seeds make excellent presents. If you are in Italy, virtually every market has a stall full of the sort of seeds grown by locals?artichokes, lettuce, herbs, rocket and zucchini?and these will be good and cheap. Live plants, if you bring those you are allowed (cuttings are probably safe) should be firmly packed with wadded- up newpaper wetted under the tap and kept in a sponge bag or dustbin liner. We once had to buy an entire new suitcase to bring back about a thousand chive plants given by an organic farm in Ireland, and they are doing well.

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.

Country houses for sale

Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter