The answer is "depends." If all goes as it's supposed to, the orchids will probably be just fine. But if, as often happens, either Mother Nature or human nature intervene, then you will likely not receive an orchid in good condition without a heat pack. All it takes is a good cold snap or a careless postal worker to ruin the shipment. Unless you get a very good deal or just simply must have these varieties of orchids now, I would wait for warmer weather.

Not only be concerned about cold weather, but also about shipping delays due to the holiday. Lots of packages are working their way through the system, and I have learned to wait to order until after the New Year - just in case.

Also, when purchasing orchids during the winter, be sure to ask the seller to ship them dry, as cold and damp are hard on orchid roots.

I personally wouldn't order from a vendor who wouldn't add some sort of heat pack this time of year.

I would not order orchids at this time, period. The Christmas mailing rush can and will delay even priority mail by a week or more. I remember several years ago a package from Hawaii took two weeks to get here, and one from a dealer in AZ (or NM, he's now closed down) took almost three weeks. It was amazing that most of the plants even survived; took quite a while for them to regain their health. Wait until after the holidays.

On the heat pack issue, it depends where the seller is. There is no way you can put a heat pack in the box in Florida (or S. Cal) to ship to Michigan because the orchids would roast before they got anywhere near cold temps. Heat packs only work from the reverse direction, north to south. And most heat packs are only good for 48 hours or so, and at this time of the year, no package is going to arrive in 48 hours (or even a week) anyhow.

Again, no matter how tempted -- and it is a huge temptation -- wait at least until the holidays are over. Two weeks isn't too long to wait.

Hello.
My personal experiences with the U.S. Priority Mail during the Holiday season has been below average. I have ordered many orchids from a few Ebay orchid vendors this past couple of weeks, and have been disappointed in the arrival time. Many order took 5-7 days due to transit time. During this frigid time of year my budded plants that I have won did not make it. The heat pack that I ordered was as cold as a brick! The plants had some yellowing, due to some stress of being in the box too long.
I've now stop ordering plants from vendors who do not ship using 2 business day service. In recent orders from Hawaii (Kawamoto Orchid Nursery) have been really successful! I do not know how they do it! They just amazed me in all aspects of quality, shipping/packing, and most of all customer service! They've been including free heat packs to any order going to frigid weather as well as insulating the box. For those of you who have not experienced them, you are really missing out!

I unfortunately am just realizing this problem!
It's been in the high 40's/low 50's here so I didn't really think I was going to have a problem when I ordered a paph online. Unfortunately though US Mail is pretty horrible right now and most likely your package isn't going from point a to point b without a stopover. So of course I got my package today and the poor thing was completely black. Lesson learned! Good to know about Kawamato, wasn't sure if they even offered heat packs because it's not listed anywhere on their site or ebay listings. Just says min temps 50 degrees. But most of what they sell is Catt's and they seem to be more cold tolerant than other orchids.

Shipping is easy when used correctly and the average reseller (especially ebay types) do not understand shipping.

I will ship this coming week USPS two day service without problems. Only the most remote areas have ever taken three days. In the last two years I have not had a single customer complain of an orchid damged by cold and I ship fully open Cattleya flowers all winter long. I warranty the flowers and buds and have not had one claim for credit for blasted buds. Customers only need to email they had flower damage to get the credit no proof is necessary.

It is easy to make slight errors in addresses that will delay delivery. When you use the USPS on line mail system this does not happen as they edit the addresses against valid addresses.

Heat packs though are a waste of your money. They only last 4-8 hours and then then are done. With two day shipment most of the time you do not have a heat pack even if you paid for it. If the heat pack is removed from the plastic liner completely the heat may only last a couple of hours. For longest effect the pack should be left in the plastic liner with only the end ripped open.

I have shipped orchids and before that live fish for thirty years. I have used thousands of heat packs and the use was mostly to reassure customers since they really did not do much. They had minimal value when shipping air freight and had delivery in 4-6 hours. As I said longer times and the heat pack is dead anyway.

It is not a matter of cost since the high quality heat packs I buy commmercially only cost 0.60. They really do not do anything but make you feel better.

The heat pack enclosed with my orchids from Hawaii was still very warm when it arrived in Vermont after 3 days! Maybe there are various kinds?

There is a difference between heat packs used by hunters and fishermen to keep their hands warm (a few hours only), and the ones meant for shipping. Generally, in the South, all you find to buy is the hunter-type, which is useless for shipping.

I have had orders come in from Oak Hill in Chicago and other northern dealers with the heat packs still slightly warm after three or even four days. But at this holiday time, you aren't going to get your plants in 3-4 days, unfortunately.

Thank you, vtandrea & cjwatson

--Stitz--

I had the opposite happen. Oak Hill included a heat pack in my Oct shipment; while it may have been appropriate for Chicago, it was not for the Texas coast. The heat pack and our ~80 degree weather roasted the bloom spike of my Darwinara. The plant suffered no ill efects, which is, ultimately, the important part.