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Advice on buying tulip bulbs in Amsterdam

I bought a bag in the flower market. My bag had a very official looking seal stating it was ok to take to the US. I didn't find out until I got to the agricultural customs line that the bag had to be dated no longer than 6 weeks previously. Luckily, my bag was dated about 3 weeks before; the woman ahead of me in line had her purchase confiscated by the officials simply because the date was a week or two off.

Posted by
166 posts

The law is very grey. I was in Holland in 2012, and both a friend and me, bought the exact same bulbs at the flower market. He flew back to Chicago O'Hare, no problems through customs. I flew back to Minneapolis with the exact same bulbs, and they were confiscated. Only way to be sure it doesn't happen again I found out later, was to just buy them at Schiphol airport.

Posted by
19 posts

I am in Amsterdam now & fly back on Thursday to Seattle. Do I have to claim tulip bulbs or can I just pack them in my luggage? I will buy more at the airport with a date stamp. Thanks.

Posted by
2709 posts

You carry these back, you claim them on your customs form just like anything else you bought and bring back. In theory, they should be seen by the agricultural agent, you may or may not be sent over to that post. When we did this, our agent said no big deal, but then remembered that they were training a new person at the agricultural gate and asked us if we would go over and let him see the stamps, as a training tool. There was no line, and it only cost us a couple extra minutes.

We also noted that while the bulbs were something like 3 times the cost when packaged for import, the saving was lost if you bought the regular packs and then had these shipped and the customs stamps added on.