If you mean the cut flowers for the vase.
I have bought them specially boxed and in small capsules of water at each stem at the airport and brought them home many times. They cost far more than those available in the streets but they do last for a very long time if you change the water daily, take off the dead flowers, the new buds open up.
I brought some back one January and gave them to my mother saying happy mother's day (as a joke..if I do not add that some one always asks) and she did still have most of them still in flower on Mother's day. I think two stems survived until Easter.
The purple ones last longer than the white ones.
I think I got about 20 blooms for $9 US. if you consider that they charge £2 for each stem here it is still good value and one lady told me she always brings back a bunch and gives her friends one stem each.
If you mean some plants to grow in pots then it is not allowed I think it is because of the possible danger of disease and bugs in the soil.
If some one gives you a cutting wrapped in a little bit of compost and wet tissue, which will go in your toilette bag. The way to propogate is with damp compost in a glass jar with the lid on. Leave it like that for two years then break the jar and pot it up. I was told that at the orchid farm, they use empty half whiskey bottles which have a flat shape and are ideal for the job.
(I left the one I tried on the window sill and in year 2, just a few weeks away from when I should have potted it up we had a realy hot day and it cooked.)
