The doomed cacti seed order

Hey folks,
As some of you know I recently placed an order for some cacti seed from overseas.
Well it would seem that the order is doomed if it gets picked up.

I ordered the following:

Acanthocalycium peitscherianum
Acanthocalycium violaceum
Acharagma roseanum
Armatocereus matucanensis
Brasilicactus haselbergii
Histochemical strausii
Echinocactus grandis
Echinocereus enneacanthus
Echinocereus gentryi
Echinopsis eyriesii
Epithelantha micromeris
Ferocactus californicus
Ferocactus gatesii
Gymnocalycium stellatum

The green are allowed.
The yellow I cannot find listed at all (unsure of status which most likely means not allowed)
The red are not allowed
The pink I have only found listed under a different syn.

I have had an order get through unchecked before, dont like my chances of that happening again though!
Time will tell, the tracking says it left the USA on the 15th so its just a matter of waiting now.

Think I will place another order, half expecting the entire order to be scrapped and i'm really looking forward to planting some seeds!
Winter is about to set in although you wouldnt know from the last week of balmy 20 something days and evening we've had in melbourne.
I've read its better to start seeds in winter inside so that when the warm weather comes around they're kicking along and you get a head start.
Hopefully by summer I will have a fair few troops to add to the army!

Cheers,

Walker87

Heheh. Your Cleisto became Histochemical ??? Darn autocorrect!

You never know, but I think they are extra sure to check stuff from the US, as that requires a Phyto Cert as well (or at least it used to) They have some bugs over there that we don't want here ! They won't check the synonym at all, it would have had to be tagged with whatever name is allowed to have had a chance. Not listed equals not allowed for sure.

Fingers crossed they just yank the not allowed, and let the others through...though not having a Phyto may be another problem...

I think ordering from Europe is usually a safer bet.

Ha ha ha! Did not even notice that, what on earth is a histochemical!?
Didn't know that USA imports were stricter than Europe, if anything I thought it would be the other way around. It's a shame because the USA has super cheap cacti seed and I can actually read the websites, some of the European ones aren't translated, makes for fun reading.
The customs page didn't mention a certificate but it may very well be there, it'll most likely be that paper thin fine text I failed to hold a magnifying glass up to, to read.
Guess I will find out what happened in another week or so, never ordered anything from USA before, the European seeds I ordered took 3 weeks.

*UPDATE*

Received the seeds today (all of them)

Absolutely stoked!
Going to plant them all up tonight and will kelp you all posted with the results.

Happy to post the website that I purchased them from if anyone is interested, postage took 11 days from the USA. Wasn't expecting them until next week at the earliest.

I would be interested in the vendor, i need seeds!

Did you order them altogether or seperated? Ive read that smaller orders are safer, but how small is small? They are seeds after all...

I also would love to know the vendor, I sent a E-Mail and tried to ring some one I found on this site from Mexico "Mesa" still no reply a week later? I am looking for some-one to buy seeds from as well! Walker that is great that you have your seeds. Happy planting. Hope you get a good results in striking.

Walker,

How did the planting go?

Hey sneaky,
Have pretty much written off this lot of seeds.
The germination was good however several poor choices and a move took its toll.
Got a few plants out of it but overall not a great result.
My most recent plantings have faired alot better so far and I've learnt from where i went wrong.

Does any one know where there is a good supply of seeds to purchase!

Hey JK,
Sorry I missed your original post.
I buy most of my seed from cactusstore.com
Great range, good prices and excellent germination rate.

Just check the quarantine restrictions before you order to save headaches.

Thanks!

Mesa garden has the biggest range, by far.
Koehres Kakteen has a pretty decent range also, and stocks some things that Mesa doesn't.

I'd start with those two.

I sent a E-Mail to Mesa and still no reply, not sure what is happening? I tried to ring them as well but got no reply. I got there E-Mail off the web? I made a order and checked if it was ok to bring into Australia and sent the E-Mail and two weeks ago. Has any one else had trouble contacting them. There Web page says it is current June or July 2015.

Where is mesa gardens located?

I've read reviews that Mesa are difficult to deal with due to the volume of orders they receive also their ordering system is complicated. I've looked at ordering from there a few times and given up.
Pretty sure they are based in Mexico.
Can say with confidence that cactusstore.com are easy to deal with and postage is very fast.

Thanks!