Looking for Yaupon - Europe

Hi everyone,
I am desperately trying to find a live plant of Yaupon, in Europe (Bulgaria specifically) Ilex Vomitoria is the Latin name

I have some seeds coming but I read they can take two years to even germinate!

If anyone has any plants or even cuttings they could send me (willing to pay obviously) I would be eternally grateful

I am looking for a Non dwarf variety, as they tend to be slow growing. The wilder the better!

Please help!

I have some seeds in my cart and just saw this post... Sorry, if you're looking for it once I pot them up to 3 inches, let me know!

Welcome to the forum!

Have you investigated whether Yaupon (Ilex Vomitoria) will grow in Bulgaria?

I know nothing about Bulgaria's climate though it seems it might be too cold there. That may be why it is impossible to find it there.

We’re Zone 7a and the minimum temperature we get is about -15 Celsius so I’m fairly certain we can grow it well here

The main issue is that no one in Europe even stocks the seeds, let alone the plants - it’s an economic hurdle rather than a climate one I think

I have a bunch on the way seeds wise but I’m eager to get a plant on the way before 2025 hits

As I understand it, importing plants from the USA requires some sort of certification, therein lies the problem I think

Even as a Canadian I can barely get any live plants from the usa, I'd looked into getting a yaupon plant as a house plant a few years back but it was extremely difficult to do and rather expensive. the best thing to try is to ask a local greenhouse or, even better, botanical institution locally to assist you.

Have you tried checking if a local arboretum or botanical garden has some? If they do, you could explain the situation and ask if it would be possible to take some cuttings or, assuming they fruit, fresh seeds. (Or just grab some, if you can do it neatly without damaging the plants or disturbing anyone...)

I don't know if this exists anywhere else, but in Belgium (my partner is from there) there's a search tool for browsing the collections of a bunch of arboreta and botanical gardens (http://www.plantcol.be/search-plants.php). Unfortunately it doesn't cover all arboreta, but it's very useful. A search for Ilex vomitoria shows that one of the collections has 10 accessions, and another has 1. So it does exist within Europe at least. You could try to find a tool like this for Bulgaria, or if there isn't one check each individual arboretum. They tend to keep at least a basic list of what they have somewhere on their website, although actually finding the plants when you visit can sometimes be challenging...

Thankyou everyone for your assistance in this. I WILL grow my own caffeine….eventually

I hope your seeds arrive fast and grow well, Taylor!  I'm interested in trying this too, but I cant find any seed sources that aren't in the US.  
Whereabouts in Bulgaria are you?

We are in Kyustendil on the western side of BG. If they arrive and grow well then I suppose I will have to start sharing them with Europe!

A nice little side business possibility?

My place is in a small village in the north-east corner of Bulgaria.

Woah awesome! Shame though you couldn’t be further away from us if you tried lol, we are right on the border to Macedonia

Definitely a good side business, it’ll take a couple of years minimum though

Yep, we are close to the border with Romania, about 20 miles from the coast! Opposite corners!

Well it’s been over a year now and still no luck on buying some live Yaupon Ilex vomitoria plants in the EU

I have some seeds in the ground but they apparently can take 18 months to germinate yay

Any hope for me buying an established plant in Europe?

Here's one. Don't know if they deliver outside France, their website isn't exactly helpful, but you could try to contact them.

This one delivers outside France at least, but maybe not to Bulgaria.

This one does deliver to Bulgaria, but is rather expensive.

And all of them seem to have only the dwarf variety for whatever reason... Hope it helps anyways.