Oh sure--they'll most likely be OK. I lady shipped me a lily wrapped in wet newspaper once (and it even had a full head of buds) and it lived for me. It's just not the kind of advise I would give somebody I don't know. I don't like shipping live plants but sometimes one doesn't have a choice if you want the plant bad enough. Did you know that lilies grown in the forcing and cut flower industry are different than those same lilies we grow in our gardens? (the kinds you see at weddings, funerals, etc.) They are grown from specially selected cloned bulbs that produce long skinny stems with very few leaves to make floral arrangements easy and more flexible. I like to have a few around to cut for the house so I get those from time to time from a 'forcer' and he ships them to me after they get done blooming. The price is right (free). But we use the method I descibed above. So I have 'skinny' versions of Stargazer, Starfighter, Rio Negro and a few white ones growing--it takes another year for the bulb to recover and aclimate after the forcing, but kinda fun to have around.
Edit added: I was going to say that when shipping 'live' lily plants, you want to keep everything dry as possible. The greenery will live off the reserves in the bulb. The main thing to avoid is excess build up of moisture to lower the risk of fungus and mold. Bulbs sweat, plants sweat, so plenty of moisture is generated within the close container that hopefully gets absorbed by the dry perlite and dry newspaper. This is contrary to what most people would first think. I know the first thing I'd automatically think of is the poor plant will need water to survive along the way. That's not the case with lilies.
Thanks for sharing your experience; a pleasant 'change of topics' on this forum we all enjoy. Be sure to let us know how things work out.
