# Mystery Seeds From China Mystery Seeds From China refers to the July 2020 reports of unsolicited seed packets arriving in American and British mailboxes with Chinese postmarks, often labeled as jewelry or ear studs to avoid customs checks. Officials warned recipients not to plant them, and within days Facebook users were captioning Little Shop of Horrors stills with lines like 'When you plant those seeds from China.' ## Origin Reports of mystery seeds began in the UK before the story broke in the US. British tabloid Daily Mail covered the issue on July 17th, 2020, quoting Derbyshire gardener Sue Westerdale, who received a packet marked 'ear studs' containing large black seeds after making legitimate seed purchases through Amazon[1]. Westerdale wrote about her delivery on a British gardening Facebook forum and said she heard back from hundreds of people with the same story[1]. The US story went viral on July 24th, 2020, when the Washington State Department of Agriculture posted a Facebook warning about packets arriving in envelopes marked as jewelry, cautioning that the contents could be invasive or dangerous to livestock[4]. That same day, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued its own alert saying several residents had received packages that appeared to come from China[5]. Snopes confirmed the mailings on July 25th but rated the stories 'mixed' because the motive behind them was unclear[2]. - **Platform:** Facebook (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2020 ## Overview Reports of the seeds moved as a mix of genuine public health warning and viral joke material. Social media users shared photos of the tiny parcels, which were addressed to real recipients and marked with innocuous contents like jewelry or ear studs, alongside speculation that the mailings might be an invasive crop plot or something stranger[2]. Agricultural authorities in multiple states told anyone who got a packet to leave it sealed, contact the USDA and treat the matter as agricultural smuggling[2]. Joke posts arrived within days of the first warnings. On July 30th, 2020, Facebook group OldtimersPage shared a still of the carnivorous Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors with the caption 'When you plant those seeds from China,' picking up more than 18,000 shares in under a day[4]. Instagram page @saycheesetv ran its own post on July 26th about the mystery mailings that reached more than 11,000 likes in less than a week[4]. ## How to Use Most jokes around the event paired a photo of a monstrous or alien plant with a caption like 'When you plant those seeds from China,' trading on the fear that recipients might sow something invasive[4]. The common convention is to use the OldtimersPage format with Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, though stills from other killer plant films work the same way[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Mystery Seeds From China? Mystery Seeds From China refers to the July 2020 reports of unsolicited seed packets arriving in American and British mailboxes with Chinese postmarks, often labeled as jewelry to avoid customs checks[2]. ### Where did Mystery Seeds From China come from? UK gardeners were the first to report the mailings publicly, with the Daily Mail covering the issue on July 17th, 2020, before the Washington State Department of Agriculture posted its viral warning on July 24th[1][4]. ### What does Mystery Seeds From China mean? Officials and reporters linked the packets to a Chinese 'brushing' scam, in which sellers mail unordered items to real addresses so they can post fake verified-purchase reviews under those names and lift their Amazon rankings[3]. ### How do you use Mystery Seeds From China? Joke posts typically paired a photo of a killer plant such as Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors with a caption like 'When you plant those seeds from China,' as Facebook group OldtimersPage did on July 30th, 2020[4]. ### Is Mystery Seeds From China still popular? The story was a short 2020 news cycle, and both the joke posts and the official warnings faded once Fortune and other outlets reported the brushing-scam explanation on July 30th, 2020[3]. ## References 1. [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8535661/Hundreds-British-gardeners-receive-unsolicited-deliveries-garden-seeds-sent-China.html]() 2. [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/china-seed-mailings/]() 3. [https://fortune.com/2020/07/30/what-is-brushing-scam-china-mystery-seeds/]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mystery-seeds-from-china]() 5. [https://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/press-releases-200724-seeds.shtml]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/mystery-seeds-from-china Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library