How To Send Potted Plants

• Written by Holly Hughes on March 2, 2023

You want to surprise a loved one with a potted plant - maybe they’ve just got a promotion and you want to get them a celebratory for their new office, or perhaps they’ve moved house and you want to send them a moving present in the form of a coffee table shrub. How do you do it? 

Shipping potted plants can seem like a hazardous task, especially if you want to send them to someone in another state. However, knowing how to ship a potted plant is easier than you think. This article is here to show you how. 

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How to ship potted plants

The first - and probably most important thing to know about shipping potted plants - is that you don’t have to do it yourself. Similar to ordering flowers for Mother’s Day or balloons for a birthday party, you can order a stunning and fresh potted plant to be shipped straight to your loved one’s door from an online delivery store. 

Online flower delivery companies are happy to ship beautiful potted plants that can be the perfect gift for someone who is struggling with sleep, in need of some cheering up in a dull office space, or recovering from an illness and could use the air-purifying and mood-boosting benefits of a friendly plant. 

From potted peace lilies at 1800Flowers to miniature garden plant boxes at ProFlowers, knowing how to ship a potted plant is easy. In fact, it’s as easy as choosing the perfect plant, filling in your delivery details, and then waiting for your order to be shipped!

How to pack potted plants for shipping

However, if you do want to ship your own potted plant, ensuring it’s been packed correctly is vital to ensure it arrives safely and intact. After, all whether your shrub is being shipped or sent across land, it can befall all kinds of things! Here’s how to pack potted plants correctly so you can ship them with complete peace of mind. 

Roots

Most experts recommend shipping shrubs with bare roots instead of potted roots. So, if this is possible for you, remove your shrub from its pot and shake off excess soil from the roots into the pot.

Then wrap your roots in moist paper towels, put them in a plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap and secure them with some elastic bands to prevent errant growth or breakages. Finally, put them in a box and get ready to ship!

Pot

Shipping potted plants is a little more tricky but can certainly be done if you follow these steps. If you want to avoid uprooting and ship your shrub in a pot, the first thing to do is to get a plastic flower pot. This will prevent any potential breakages during shipping. Transplant your plant to the chosen pot carefully.

Soil

Typically, the best moisture for your potted plant when shipping is a semi-dry soil. To achieve this, water your shrub in advance of its shipping, giving it time to absorb and begin to dry out. Never ship a pot that is still wet with water as this can leak in transit.

Wrapping

Now wrap the pot in newspaper. You can add a layer of burlap around the plant’s foliage for extra protection. Once covered in newspaper, put the pot in a plastic bag, tying the handles of the bag around the plant’s stem. 

Find a box big enough to fit your plant without crushing any foliage or flowers. Put the wrapped pot inside it. We recommend placing a corrugated divider between the flower pot and the flowers. It’s very important to make sure your pot is placed upright and labeled with something like ‘This Way Up’ on the outside of the box to ensure minimal damage. 

Finally, before closing, sealing, and labeling, add in bubble wrap or packing peanuts to pillow the pot and the foliage while it’s being shipped.

If you are shipping your plant to a cold region, adding bubble wrap around the package is also a great way to insulate your plant against any extreme cold that might affect it.

If all of this  personal shipping sounds like too much hassle and you want to leave shipping a potted plant to the experts, here’s some of our favorite flower delivery companies that also specialize in a whole range of stunning and mood-boosting potted plants:

The best online shops that ship potted plants in the US:

• FTD
• FromYouFlowers
• 1800Flowers
• SendFlowers
• Teleflora