I've ordered from various vendors (even in the dead of winter) and received plants that are happy and healthy. I've missed the mailman a few times and found the boxes outside of my front door. Vendors usually do a really good job of packing the plants to withstand the weather. The boxes say "Live Orchids!" on the outside, so the mailman should know to be gentle. (On a side note, queen bees are sent through USPS, too. Weird, eh?)
Anyway, for example, I just bought some minis from Oak Hill Gardens in Chicago. The minis were wrapped carefully, placed inside a USPS box, and then placed in an even larger USPS box that was filled with packing peanuts and brown paper! The plants were very happy and healthy even though it was 40 degrees outside. And Oak Hill even called me to say they were holding off for a few days to avoid a storm. So if you trust the seller, go for it. They'll make it just fine.
I saw this video once (I think someone might have linked to it here actually) that shows how orchids are shipped. It made me feel a LOT better about ordering orchids this way:
Go for it!
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