Wild Seed The reputation of the SRGC is at risk if we offer seed that has been collected illegally or does not have distribution permission. This could harm future attempts by people who want to collect seed legitimately. The SRGC is not able to check seed submissions, so please do not submit wild collected seed that would put our reputation at risk. Please also retain the documentation giving any relevant permission for as long as possible.
Seed donations from members in the UK: seed donation from UK members is entirely unchanged; you can send seed in into the exchange as normal. Seed from UK members becomes increasingly important to us as the import of donations from the rest of the World become more and more difficult to manage.
Seed donations from members in Other countries: The UK authorities now require all seed being sent to the UK from countries not in the EU, Norway and Switzerland to have a phytosanitary certificate from the donor country. We know that the cost of certificates, and the ease of obtaining them, varies greatly from country to country. We have been working on a means to solve this problem, at least for some seed donations, and hope to manage a co-ordinated approach for members in the USA and Australia.
From members in the EU, Norway and Switzerland: We are very pleased to say that the UK government has relaxed the regulations for seed import from the EU, Norway and Switzerland. Members will be able to send seed without a phytosanitary certificate this year, directly to the seed exchange. We hope this arrangement will remain in place for the future and take this opportunity to thank Ashley Allshire and Katharina Briese for co-ordinating donations in the last two years.
From members in the USA: We are delighted that Marc Rosenblum, an SRGC member from Oregon, has volunteered to coordinate and collate all the seed donations from US members, obtain a single phytosanitary certificate and forward the seed to the exchange. We are really grateful to Marc for this, and want to let you know the procedures for this year:
First, you must, please, email and Marc at with an alphabetical list of the full scientific name of each of your seed donations by 1st October 2024. This will enable Marc to ensure that your seed is on the US Phytosanitary Certificate Included Taxa Database, and will enable us to ensure that your seed donations appear in the seed list.
May we emphasise that seed for inspection needs to be really clean. Please send your clean, dry seed (no wet packs please) by 10th October 2024 to: Marc Rosenblum, 821 Parry Rd, Falls City, OR 97344 .
Send an alphabetical list of seed with your parcel. Please use glassine envelopes if you have them, and send modest, not huge volumes of seed. If you have larger volumes of special seed you wish to send, please email us at .
Marc says that he will be able to accept late seed (up to 23 Oct) if:
1) they arrive commercially clean,
2) he knows they are coming and
3) the sender ensures that they arrive on time.
Please note that we will always be more interested in American seed, and less interested in plants common in British or European gardens. Seed despatch to the USA from the SRGC Exchange is not affected by these changes; this will operate in the normal way. You will need to email us your 'Small lots of Seed Permit' and green & yellow labels separately; please do not send these to Marc with your seed donation.
From members in Canada:
Last year it proved problematic to send Canadian seed via our US co-ordination. This year, Marc Rosenblum (see above) will not be able to deal with Canadian seed donations through the US system. However, we are advised that it is not difficult to arrange for a phytosanitary certificate in Canada.
Details can be found at
Shipping and exporting seeds from Canada - inspection.canada.ca
The first step is to contact a local office. There are many CFIA agents across Canada.
Details can be found at
Contact a Canadian Food Inspection Agency office by telephone - inspection.canada.ca
They will send you via email an interactive form that takes 5-10 minutes to fill out and when that is reviewed by an CFIA officer as to species compatibility i.e. not on any invasive or CITES list, you then pay your fee.<br>
For shipments of value less than $1600 (ie all to SRGC) we understand the cost is approx $12.
Then a physical inspection takes place and a phyto is signed.
It is important to check that no seed coming to the UK is on the UK banned list (see the section earlier).
From members in Australia:
We are currently talking to some of our Australian members about trying to arrange a way of receiving donations from Australia in one package with a single phytosanitary certificate. However, there are administrative and cost problems in trying to arrange this with the Australian inspection authorities, and it is currently proving difficult. Please check back for further information in due course - or email us if you wish to send a donation.
From members in ALL other Overseas countries: At the moment we do not have any similar offers to coordinate seed donations from other countries. We appreciate that phytosanitary certificates will incur extra costs; if you might be prepared to handle seed from a group of members in your country as a way of minimising costs, we would be pleased to hear from you at . If you are considering sending us a large or unusual donation, again, please contact us before you send. Please do read the instructions on seed donations above before sending seed to the exchange.
Happy seed collecting, and we hope the new arrangements work well. Once again, many thanks for your efforts in donating seed to SRGC.
Details of the Seed Exchange are published in our Dryas Newsletter in July each year, issued to all of our members. However, these pages will always show the most up-to-date information including any late changes and updates. Please also check our separate and more detailed page on the
Seed Exchange, Seed Ordering menu above.
