Import

[Hutch11]

Hi guys,

Has anyone imported Japanese Maples from the US or other overseas country. I'm hoping to import various cultivars for use in production and need some advice

Much appreciated

[greg27]

From what I've read importing plants is a time-consuming and expensive process - plants can be held in quarantine for months (or years!) and there's no guarantee they won't die or be destroyed.

Seeds are probably a safer bet but still come with a range of conditions.

https://www.agriculture.gov.au/import/g ... t-products

[TimS]

It can be done depending on country and, more importantly, species, and even more importantly, the depth of your pockets.

Go to agriculture.gov.au to look into it and use the BICON service to look up what restrictions are on species from different countries.

When I looked at the cost of just the relevant paperwork of permits and phytosanitary certificates to bring in one Japanese maple from Japan, it was about $2,000 alone. Then add on cost of tree, cost of treatments in Japan by the nursery, cost of freight or flights to bring it back carry on if a small one, and the cost of renting space at the Tullamarine Quarantine facility at a weekly rate of something like $150/m2/week for 3 months minimum I decided it was only worth it to bring in something really special. Some conifers can be up to 3 years in Quarantine so it’s not even worth doing purely on the space rental costs at that point.

Take it from someone who works with large quantities of Quarantine plant material and the laws surrounding them every day. It’s a hell of a lot of time, money and trouble. We are not like any other country as far as importing plant laws goes. We are extremely strict, and any issue such as a foreign disease or insect will result in all those thousands of dollars following your tree(s) into an incinerator.

The government didn’t care about destroying the prawn industry a few years back when they poured chlorine into all the farms up north. They sure as hell don’t care about you losing a tree.

By all means go for it if you have the time and money to do it, legally yes you can import Japanese Maple into Australia from Japan (I don’t know about the US), but one big tree might end up costing you $10,000 all in. Lots of small trees increases risk of finding foreign disease and pests as you’d have to weigh up the chance of having all your trees destroyed because of one. There are no guarantees; the basic requirement other than minimum 3 months quarantine is seeing healthy root and shoot growth free from pest/ disease. You would be best to bring it in in late winter, before bud burst, and have it come out of dormancy in Quarantine. I don’t know if it would need to be bare rooted, Australia is funny about overseas soils coming in, and all of my work stuff comes in as Tissue Culture, unrooted cuttings or cutting rooted into a porous substrate. Totally different to established trees.

As I say, go have a look through the website, it’s all there for you.

[KIRKY]

Its also possible to find some rare Maple’s here already. Pays to ask, someone may have what your looking for. Also the rare nurseries in your sate maybe hiding some gems. You never know.
Cheers
Kirky

[TimS]

Very true Kirky, I’ve found Arakawa here along with many others. The only ones I’ve had problems finding in Australia are Katsura and Seigen

[gnichols]

Maples x mail has seigen. I bought two, one didn't survive a brutal summer then the second one didn't bloom in its second spring. A little disappointing because others I've bought through them have done well. Deshoja is the one I have trouble finding. I got one off eBay over a decade ago and haven't seen many since.

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[TimS]

Maples x mail has seigen. I bought two, one didn't survive a brutal summer then the second one didn't bloom in its second spring. A little disappointing because others I've bought through them have done well. Deshoja is the one I have trouble finding. I got one off eBay over a decade ago and haven't seen many since.

Sent from my SM-G570F using Tapatalk

Deshojo or Shin-Deshojo? Deshojo is a very old cultivar, you'd be highly unlikely to see it outside Japan except perhaps Europe as an exported specimen tree. I think a lot of what is called Deshojo these days is actually the Shin-Deshojo that superseded it, which is pretty much in every retail nursery in Australia in Autumn and Spring when the big drops of maples happen.

I’ved tried shindeshojo to little success, it doesn’t seem to like air layering or growing on its own roots particularly. One to use if you find a good graft.

[gnichols]

Sorry shin deshoja. I might try an aerial layer on it next spring.

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[KIRKY]

Hey Tim, Katsura try Bulleen Art & Garden
They should have some or get it in for you.
Cheers
Kirky

[KIRKY]

[/quote]

Deshojo or Shin-Deshojo? Deshojo is a very old cultivar, you'd be highly unlikely to see it outside Japan except perhaps Europe as an exported specimen tree. I think a lot of what is called Deshojo these days is actually the Shin-Deshojo that superseded it, which is pretty much in every retail nursery in Australia in Autumn and Spring when the big drops of maples happen.

I’ved tried shindeshojo to little success, it doesn’t seem to like air layering or growing on its own roots particularly. One to use if you find a good graft.
[/quote]

Tim, can you tell me the difference between the two? I am sure I have the Deshojo got it from a Bonsai Nursery years ago as a starter.

Cheers
Kirky

[TimS]

Shin is Japanese for ‘new’, it was developed from a sport from a Deshojo, hence New Deshojo.

There actually isn’t a whole lot of difference funnily enough, I believe shin-deshojo is just a more vigorous growing plant having been a sport, and gives stronger pinky-red spring colour and better Autumn colour that’s all. It might be a bit coarser suiting larger size trees being more vigorous

[KIRKY]

Thanks Tim, thought there might be a difference in colour n leaf size etc...
Cheers
Kirky