I'm a military member serving in Korea and was introduced to the Bonsai community while here. I had a bonsai given to me which I am taking care of and have grown fond of it. I'm being reassigned to Hawaii in several months and was wondering if anyone here could point me in the right direction on whether it's possible to ship bonsais internationally and if so how is it safely done and where can I find local laws for shipping of plants? Thanks for any help.

howdy,

i did a quick search to try to help u out with no luck.i know there are restrictions on shipping certain species of tree from japan to the contiguous 48
but have no idea if it applies to hawaii. i have a couple contacts i can try that might know but it mite take a while.

Thanks for the help. Since I don't leave until August I still have some time. I think it's pretty confusing just going from state to state sometime, but add the international aspect and I'm not sure where to even find info.

I have been in shipping for over 10 years and last year started my own Freight Forwarding company. I will look into this for you tomorrow when I get back to the office as shipping bonsai can be a problem. Bonsai from Japan require a phytosanitary certificate but I'm not sure about Korea, let's hope it's not required because if so your tree will have to be fumigated first and I don't know what effects this will have on your tree.

I've opened a can of worms here...

Please bare with me as I am in discussion with FERA and USDA. You do require a phytosanitary certificate but the tree should only require an inspection rather than fumigation.

I am interested now so will get to the bottom of it; I will at some point need to know the type of tree and also the weight and dimensions of the tree after packing.

I'll keep you updated.