Sticking my 2 cents in..lol!!!
Kale,
when I first started I payed attention to how people would ship plants to me and that's how I learned. So this is how I do it. If you are shipping a plant/s water them well the day before. Then the next day (day of shipping) you dig it up and take some damp paper towels and wrap them around the roots. You can remove all the dirt if you'd like from them to make the package weigh less. After you've wrapped the damp paper towels around the roots, you wrap the rooted part in Cling wrap/Glad wrap/ or in a baggie and tape it close to the stem, but ONLY the rooted part. MAKE SURE YOU DON"T WET THE LEAVES OR THE RECIEVER WILL RECIEVE MUSH FOR A PLANT!!!! Make sure you label the name of the plant on it so that the recipient knows which plant is which. Afterwards, take 2 plastic bags (the kind they give you at Walmart/Kmart/ or any shopping store). Take one of the 2 bags and insert the entire plant/s leaves first so that the roots are near the handle of the bag and tape/tie. Then take the bagged plant and insert it into the 2nd bag root side first and take it by the handles and insert it into the proper fitting box. You have now made a makeshift greenhouse for your plant to travel in safely. You don't have to do this for each plant, as several plants fit into 2 shopping plastic bags. Try to ship no later than Wednesday otherwise they will sit in the post office over the weekend. So you can ship Mon., Tues., and Wed.
Now if you are sending Cactuses or succulents wrap them in a semi damp newspaper and then wrap it in a dry newspaper. This also applies for bulbs.
Do NOT place them in plastic.
On dampening your paper towels, fold them in half first and then dampen them, wring them (not too tight) and them unfold them back to the half fold and set it around the roots. Then do same with the 2nd paper towel. You want to be able to have at most 2 layers wrapped around the roots. You CAN fold the roots once you've put the first damp towel on. Also, when putting them in a box you CAN bend the plant carefully so that it is curled as long as you don't force it because that will break it. Then, once boxed if there is any emty space that you make think the plants will be bouncing around set a wadded up newspager in there. Then close the box. It's always nice to enclose things such as a note to the person or instructions on the plants.
Well, that's it. If you have further questions please feel free to notify me. I'd be happy to answer them if I know the answer and if I don't I know people around here will. Thank-you and hope this helps.
Always a friend,
Fantasygal1 aka nancy