My first thought was "oh no it's those mysterious seeds being sent from China".
But upon opening up the letter, it was something being sent from the US.
It was 1 gram of wasurenagusa seeds...I looked up what that was.
"forget-me-not" seeds...
I called the number and talked to the person working there.
He mentioned that a letter addressed to us had be scanned and these seeds were in them.
The seeds were not marked as inspected by agriculture in the US, so they were not able to forward the seeds to us.
I asked him who was sending us this letter.
He told me the name and I realized it was my cousin in California.
Then I remembered that some families send seeds as a thank you whenever someone passes.
Which is why the seeds were "forget-me-not", they were for my Aunty who passed due to COVID earlier this year.
I told the person to remove the seeds and forward the letter to us.
He said that due to COVID, the forwarded letter will take about 2 to 3 weeks! as it passes through the Japan postal service (and it is only going from Yokohama to Tokyo)...sigh.
Afterwards, I emailed my cousin and told her what had happened.
She confirmed that she did have a packet of seeds in with her thank you note for the sympathy card we had sent to her.
Thank goodness it wasn't from China...and thank goodness I was able to sort things out smoothly.
Someone had accidently planted those Chinese seeds thinking it was from her gardening group as they do that kind of thing. It looked like weeds and nothing I've seen before but I'm unfamiliar with mainland type weeds. Gov't never said WHAT kind of seeds they were like poisonous? flower? Plant? What a mystery. -N
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice thank you gift. We used to get postage stamps. I like this seed idea, especially that they were forget me nots!
ReplyDeleteI had ordered some double amaryllis bulbs from Amazon and only after submitting my order, found out that they come from China. They were supposed to arrive late July but that was about the height of those mystery seed mailings from China so maybe that's why I still didn't get them. When I checked tracking it said I should get them sometime before end of August. I ordered them early June!!
v
What a nice custom. Will you be able to plant and raise them?
ReplyDeletedefinitely a mystery N!
ReplyDeletehope you get your order V!
no R, the seeds had to be removed because they were not approved by US Agriculture before sending.
Take care everyone.
Kat
Well, that's good you found out that those were legit Kat.....though based on my recent experience with the post office; perhaps I'm not the best one to advise folks.....
ReplyDeletePretty amazing that it got caught.
ReplyDeletethe seeds still got confiscated Kirk, but it is good that they are checking.
ReplyDeleteI think they xray each piece of mail, Jalna!
Take care you two.
Kat
I finally received my amaryllis bulbs that I ordered in June yesterday. NOT!!! I got an empty box with a customs sticker and note saying they were confiscated and destroyed because did not have proper forms and permits. So aggravating! More so, when I tried to report to Amazon to get refund, it says I have to contact the seller first to resolve so I just tried sending an email. Hope this can be resolved.
ReplyDeletev
I haven't even heard of those Chinese seeds getting into Italy as customs as super strict about stuff like that. I believe seeds need to be accompanied with a phytosanitary certificate in order to pass customs. I feel it's rather harsh, and find it so funny that I can actually purchase marijuana seeds from a local seller with no problem at all.
ReplyDeleteThat is so wrong V, I hope the seller will refund your money!
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting Rowena!
Take care you two.
Kat
FYI, seller promptly responded to my email and Amazon sent me an email saying they are crediting back to my charge card.
ReplyDeleteVery impressed, although, I wish there were some indication that these were from China, I wouldn't have ordered, and it seems like all that the customs people needed was a phytosanitary certificate.
A friend who works with customs told me that that certificate is needed if I wanted to bring back those iris bulbs from Japan.
v
V, you should find out how to get that certificate so you can bring back those iris bulbs you wanted from Japan :) I agree though that the seller should indicate that the bulbs you bought were from China.
ReplyDeleteTake care!
Kat