Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the tiny purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you a short, and, as I think you’ll agree, entirely irresistible post. You may remember me from such equally irresistible posts as “Bunnies And Flies”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic, yet pathetic, pose. The cone comes off tomorrow. We can both hardly wait. 
Not much of anything has been happening here, as I said before, partly because we enjoy napping, and partly because the guy I live with says it wouldn’t be fair of him to work in the garden while I have to stay inside.
In a way, though, some gardening is happening, because these came in the mail today.
I know they look like something you might boil for a poultice to ward off evil spirits, but in fact these are roots of Eremurus olgae. This species is native to Uzbekistan and yes, it’s true that you can get other eremurus from regular bulb companies, but by now you should know that that sort of thing doesn’t happen here as much as it used to.
The guy I live with ordered these from a bulb company in France.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Mani, I am flummoxed. HOW does one order bulbs from France? I would luuuuv to order roses from France, but there’s a required two-year interdiction in some special growing space. Has the guy you live with been waiting two years? Maybe that’s the explanation for all those naps. By the way, to me you appear not so much pathetic – although, that cone! – as long-suffering. Long, long suffering. May tomorrow break soon.
Thanks; though I ought to be able to consume mass quantities of Brie this evening …… The guy I live with says you order bulbs from France the same way you do bulbs from England, Latvia, Lithuania, etc. Bulbs (except snowdrops) only require a phytosanitary certificate which you pay extra for, depending on the country of origin. (Snowdrops are listed as CITES Appendix II so you also have to pay for a CITES certificate—expensive—from the originating country.) Eremurus aren’t really bulbs but they come with no soil or leaves or anything like that and have always been sold by bulb companies. They were not exactly cheap. Plants are an entirely different story. The guy I live with spent some time looking at plant import permits and said that by the time he got all the spaces filled out he would be too old to garden. Seeds from other countries only require an import permit, which is easy to get.
Also, there is another way to get roses here, but it involves illicit transactions, a coat with large pockets, passwords exchanged under the clock tower at midnight, that sort of thing. Without naming any names, there was a rose person who was said to have smuggled rose cuttings out of the Soviet Union. …
It could mean trouble, of course.
Oh, I believe we know that smuggling person. We ourselves thought we smuggled a special gift of rare roses into France, but the Customs station was unstaffed so we merely brought them in to a famous Lyon rose gardener. US Customs agents summon famous/notorious rose gardeners for a lecture session with a thoroughly convincing contraband-sniffing dog. Plus, the fines.
Plus, the fines. In some cases they can be substantial.
Imagine that. Getting roots from Uzbekistan in the mail. Sorry, Mani, but I have to mention Wodehouse for the second time in two days: if TGYLW starts calling his Uzbekistan roots The Empress of Pure Bred Border Collie Manor, you’ll know that he has gone entirely ’round the bend and you’ll need to watch that he doesn’t spend too much time draped over his rooting beds murmuring “Precious, Precious…”
Yes, though, really, they were grown in France. They came from Uzbekistan or Turkestan originally, probably as seeds. Actually, though, he kind of does things like that, not saying “precious”, but mostly to the irises growing under lights upstairs. Stuff like “live long and prosper”, or “nothing but love for you”.
Whichever way you got them, Mani, we are impressed – and “nothing but love for you” is good stuff and we need more of it.
Thanks; I can certainly hardly wait until tomorrow, too.
I am trying to start growing eremurus her in the UK. E. robustus has just finished flowering, and I ahve germinated seed of E. lactiflora
Lactiflorus would be a nice one for here. Lots of them would be. But seed is hard to get; plants even harder.
Since it is France day, I noticed you are sans shorts in your photo, pourquoi? ( Personally didn’t know the reason you were wearing them since you had the cone of silence but then it clicked, so you couldn’t do the carpet rub. )
Good luck tomorrow young man.
Thanks; well, the cone came off, but according to the guy I live with, there was “rather too much licking”, which in my defense was the typical purebred border collie obsession with cleanliness, so the cone went back on. He called my doctor, who said, since there was a tiny bit of bleeding, that it was best that the cone stay on for a few more days, but I did get some very nice drugs which make things seem pretty not bad at all. I took them all last week and they did make my ordeal not so terrible, though of course the guy I live with was sorry for me.