ED: also, apparently these exceptions apply to EU people:
May individuals take with them plants in their luggage or send them in the mail to the country without a certificate?
Yes, individuals or tourists may take with them the following plants or plant parts without having a health certificate accompany them, and the same applies to sending in the mail between countries, often called carry-on rules:
A bouquet with cut flowers and branches (up to 25 plants)
Bulbs, roots and tubers from Europe in unopened store packaging (up to 2kg)
Individual potted plants (indoor plants) from Europe (up to 3 units)
When migrating from a country in Europe it is permitted to take with potted plants (indoor plants) which are appropriate as normal household items (up to 30 units).
It shall be pointed out that these exceptions do not apply to wild plants which have been harvested in the countryside, trees (with or without roots) including dwarf trees (bonsai) and potatoes. It's necessary to keep in mind that these exceptions do not apply to species that are banned from import in accordance with appendix III.
So, EU people can send cuttings and herbaceous plants without a permit
Oh...
hey... thought just hit me. All of the EU overseas territories are in the EU! Meaning they can send cuttings and herbaceous plants without a permit! This includes:
Canary Islands
La Réunion
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Madeira
French Guiana
Azores
Ponta Delgada
Mayotte
St Martin
French Polynesia
New Caledonia
Curaçao
Aruba
Bermuda
Cayman Islands
Greenland
Sint Maarten
Turks and Caicos Islands
British Virgin Islands
Bonaire
Anguilla
Wallis-et-Futuna
Saint Barthélemy
Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Montserrat
Brades
Saint Helena
Falkland Islands
Sint Eustatius
Saba
Pitcairn Islands
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Of these, the British territories (Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, Saint Helena, Falkland Islands, Pitcairn Islands), about a third of the total, may or may not be leaving the EU area, depending on whether Britain ends up with a "soft" or "hard" brexit. Regardless, there's a lot of tropical territory in there! En argggh, too bad they still require a permit for "trees" and "dwarf trees" :Þ Basically, nothing lignaceous comes with a rootstock without a permit. But if it's a rootable branch, it can fall in the bouquet exception. And roots can be purchased without a permit if they come from a store and are in unopened packaging. Haha, you know, basically any store could take a small tree, cut it at ground level, package the roots, and send both parts to be re-grafted, without needing a permit
Maybe bundling the top part with a couple roses just to make sure that the clipping doesn't run afoul of the bouquet exception
Obviously, though, permits are best.