Saturday, September 26, 2009

Dancing happy feet

After so many phone calls and explanations and arguments... finally, I have my neoregelias delivered to my gate - this very morning! Whew... now I realize what troublesome it might take to receive live plants through international mail order.
Remember last time I talked about my pet plants from Bangkok? Well, I continued asking the friend-vendor in Bangkok to get me some bromeliads. This time, to correct the situation of the last, I asked him to include a Phytosanitary certificate in the parcel, as normally required. He did. And he shipped the plants last Friday, Sep 18.
On Tuesday, Sep 21, I got a call from the delivery service informing that I have some plants from arriving from Thailand without a Phyto! That was ridiculous since I had made sure Sutthisak include one and he had confirmed that he did include one!
I continued to "argue" with the officer that the plants were accompanied with a Phyto... blah, blah... Finally, on Thursday Sep 24, the same officer stated that "they had found the Phyto"! They better did!
Anyway, the 6 neoregelias are so huge, even bigger than the Coke bottle here. Good thing!

Now I'm off to set up their home in my back yard. Feeling so happy!
PS: After setting up their home, I took another set of photos and changed those I post previous. Now, they look much better, don't they?

5 comments:

Stephanie said...

Ha Xuan, I am so happy for you to have finally gotten your orders. Anyway, the delay for a few days was still ok considering they are live plants. Over here, I am still not sure if the customs office would release live plants within a few days or at all. Importing live plants is prohibited here unless an import permit is applied beforehand. Anyway, I like your selection of bromeliad. Oh, so you did not get any from Malaysia then.

mr_subjunctive said...

I am insanely jealous. Neoregelias are awesome.

Hà Xuân said...

No, Steph, I didn't order from Malaysia since I know the vendor from BKK so I thought it'd be better to buy from the same person. I believe Vietnam is still a bit "lax" on live plant imports, except for those listed in CITES.

Mr_subjunctive: thanks for visiting. Yes, I agree that neos are pretty plants, I love their colorful foliage.

lynn'sgarden said...

OMG! These were SOOO worth fighting for! I can imagine how they will thrive and prosper in your care, Ha Xuan! Congrats on the new babies...love them!
Funny...upon seeing the pictures, I'd wondered if Mr. Subjunctive would appreciate them!

Hà Xuân said...

Yes, Lynn, I hope they will grow up well for me... and produce pups, too! :-o) I dream of making a "bromeliad tree" in my garden!