A picture of one of your gardens to be shipped would help.

Thank you for your quick response. Please give me a couple of days to take pictures and post.

Here is a picture of succulents in an old tool box. This is the type of thing we'd like to start sending.

Wow-that is FANTASTIC! I'd love to be a recipient of one of those!

Sadly, I'm going to say you be hard pressed to wrap that in a way that would make it to your intended unharmed (or in one piece), especially when you don't know how it's going to be thrown around in the mailing process.

I recently received a package that had large lettering & warnings (fragile, glass, this end up) all over the package & it still arrived with one end of the box bashed in.

Only thing I can think of is to wrap the plants separately, dirt & container & have them put it together when it arrives, but that defeats the purpose of YOU making the gift for them, doesn't it.

Okay, I finished "not helping" you today. :( Sorry!

Your stuff was gonna fall out.

Very nice arrangement! Even though it's now safe from spilling out into space, shipping "This Way Up" is likely a losing bet.

Like many of us, here, I've sent lots of plants. I have to agree, as pictured, don't hold your breath that it will arrive at its destination in good condition. If you were to limit the contents is such a fashion as to be able to close the lid, then placing packing material inside to add minimal pressure to keep things from moving too much might work. Keep in mind, even if you could do this, the cost for flat rate Priority Mail 'ain't' cheap.

Fantastic mini!

I would be very nervous about putting that in a closed box that could be turn the wrong way as said. I think Biker was onto something though, about closing the lid. Then there would be very little head-room for shifting. Putting carefully measured/arranged bubble wrap is what I would use to fill the head room. It wouldn't be hard to surround it then with styro blocks. That would secure it from shifting inside the box but being turned or dropped would still be devastating I think.

Wholesalers ship many plants in open boxes, they ride on wheeled shelves, so I wonder if any of the package delivery services has any facilities like that for the public. Doubtful for a single package but I'd investigate. Maybe ask florist shop too.

I would definitely get the insurance. When it's below freezing anywhere along route from your location to destination, that could be a issue to consider as well.

In a word, "no." Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, your only option would be the "closed lid" method and even that would be a mess. Considering the "tender care" the package would receive in transit, even if the plants were more or less in the right spots when the package was opened, you could safely bet that dirt would be all over the place.

Add to that the shipping expense -- Howard is spot on ... shipping would be far from cheap.

Definitely the type of gift that would have to be hand-delivered in person.

So this is disheartening. What about if I covered the dirt with sphagnum (sic) moss and wrapped it tightly in like saran wrap.

Thank you to all who have responded. I love all your comments even though so far no go.

I'd guess the saran wrap would encase any moisture & cause the succulents to rot.

This really is not a ship-able arrangement, so sorry, it is lovely.

I say remove the lid... make it possible to reattach later. Find a large sheet of cotton and lay that over plants to hold down. Put bottom half with plants and cotton over into a tight box you can close lid on to hold plants. Secure in larger box, secure lid and put into shipping box. :)

You may be interested to know...while I was perusing Gardenweb's Facebook page, I came across your pic above...they made it Photo of the Day on Dec 17 '13! Congrats! They called it a Box o' cacti, though. :P

Linda, Did you ever figure out a good way of mailing these (or use any suggestions above)?

I must say that I have had virtually no success in shipping these types of potted plants : (( Plastics lead to rot, shifting is a huge problem as well. Upside-down is the biggest problem, though, for pretty obvious reasons!

If you have any luck, PLEASE do let us know!! I am trying to get a potted container to my mother across the country

So thinking outside the box here.... Have you tried running an ad in local paper or whatever for someone driving that way? Admittedly I'm from Australia and we drive everywhere here lol, but I see ads all the time for people driving from Brisbane to Melbourne (or whatever) to drop things off on the way. If someone is going that way you may only have to give 50 or 100 maybe towards gas. Otherwise a private courier maybe? But that could get expensive!