I only buy sterilized commercially available seeds in most foreign countries like Italy, France, the UK, India, Thailand, etc. The only exception was from peppers in Burma that we were eating! If there is any dirt it's a no-no with customs. I have brought stem orchids by the dozens in and that's okay. They just check for hitchhikers. It's the soil that usually is of great concern and carries all sorts of "bad" things. Mary-Anne