Hi Bart! I'm sure many CAN import from the US. The glitch is the individual country's import restrictions. Some are more lax than others. I guess that could also be stated, some are far more "extreme", strict than others. If they are importing from a nursery which provides the phytosanitary certificates required, the cost is much higher to import, but the material has an easier time making it in. If it's being sent by an individual without the certificate, many countries won't allow it entry. Bierkreek has a number of partner nurseries, with whom they exchange material. My experience so far is The Netherlands appears to be the country with the easiest entry. I've not had any issues getting material into The Netherlands. I have had issues getting it into Germany. The Germans are petrified of RRD, rightly so. The Netherlands, from what I understand, is more concerned with preventing importation of RMV infected material. Just an FYI, Bierkreek is budding this month. They may be finished by now, I don't know. My bud wood was sent there two weeks ago. Previously, a Priority box required 48 hours (no joke!) to make it from Los Angeles to Bierkreek. This year, a smaller padded envelope also sent Priority required 8 days. That's well within the time frame Priority can take, but disappointing compared to the time required previously. Both were sent the week after July 4 to avoid any holiday delays here. How the material is packed makes a tremendous difference.

Thursday, I received bud wood and cuttings from Washington State, which required two days to arrive. I begged the sender to make sure all dripping water was squeezed from the toweling. I received two water balloon, Zip Loc bags with nearly a quarter cup of water each. The foliage had turned translucent like old produce left in the refrigerator too long. The ends of the canes were brown and mushy and many of the buds had turned brown to black. I salvaged the buds I could and have my fingers crossed. The bud wood I sent to Bierkreek was wrapped in DAMP toweling and double sealed in large Zip Loc bags to prevent moisture loss. They said when they received it, 8 days later, it appeared as fresh as if it had just been cut. I can't stress highly enough that rose material sealed inside plastic for any length of time requires humidity, NOT liquid water. It doesn't matter whether you're considering cuttings or bud wood in the mail or cuttings wrapped for propagation. Liquid water will rot them. Damp toweling prevents them from drying out, providing just enough moisture to maintain them. If you can squeeze ANY droplets from whatever you are using to carry the moisture, it is too wet! I'm sorry. I don't mean to hijack the thread. It seemed a perfect opportunity to share the experience and reiterate the point.

If you can work out the arrangement with Bierkreek, they may be one of, if not the easiest to accomplish your goal with due to their country's restrictions. You might also contact Loubert in France. They have generated own root plants of varieties an acquaintance wished to import so they met the 10 mm size restriction to import into the US. They may be suited to handle your request. Good luck! Kim

The Germans caring mainly about RRV and the Dutch about RMV is a sure way for both to spread across the EU since there's no control intra-EU. This can't / shouldn't be the case. RMV has been present in the continent for some time btw but is fairly contained. As a sidenote, it doesn't surprise me that the Dutch might be the laxer since they have a very important (to them) horticultural and hybridizing industry (and history of course).
Nik