My feeling is no, they would need to go through 'inspection' whether you bring them yourself or have them shipped. Certainly when I moved from the Uk to the US there were very strict rules like absolutely no soil on the transported plants because of introducing pests to the US. I am a keen gardener also, how about seeing what plants are in that part of Africa and seeing if they are available already in the US, for example the first plants I noticed in Arusha were poinsettia only much larger!
I went on the South Africa tour a couple of years ago and visited Kirstenbosch Gardens in Capetown they are supposed to be the most beautiful gardens in Africa, filled with locally native plants. And by coincidence the director of those gardens was visiting our area a couple of months ago and we attended a lecture and book signing and there was a lot of discussion about the introduction of invasive species and how much damage they do to the environment.
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I went on the South Africa tour a couple of years ago and visited Kirstenbosch Gardens in Capetown they are supposed to be the most beautiful gardens in Africa, filled with locally native plants. And by coincidence the director of those gardens was visiting our area a couple of months ago and we attended a lecture and book signing and there was a lot of discussion about the introduction of invasive species and how much damage they do to the environment.