Will the Courier Call the Recipient in Russian or English?

This question comes up almost every week at Five Flowers, usually from someone abroad sending roses to a friend in Saint Petersburg, or from an expat in Moscow who ordered for a colleague and is now worried the courier will arrive, call in rapid Russian, and get no answer. The concern is completely reasonable. Russia's courier culture relies heavily on a short phone call before arrival, so understanding exactly what that call sounds like — and what you can do to shape it — matters more than most customers expect.

Why Couriers Call Before Arriving in Russia

In Russia, a pre-arrival phone call from the courier is standard practice, not optional courtesy. Russian apartment buildings typically have locked entrance doors controlled by an intercom panel, and many residential complexes have a second security checkpoint in the lobby. Without a working call, the courier stands outside with no way in, and a bouquet of, say, garden roses or double-stemmed tulips starts losing temperature tolerance the moment it sits in an unventilated entrance hall. The call usually happens five to fifteen minutes before arrival, giving the recipient enough time to come downstairs or buzz the courier in. In practice, couriers also call if they cannot locate the building — Saint Petersburg in particular has a number of courtyards that open off the main street and are easy to miss. The call is brief: the courier states who they are, says flowers are on the way, and asks to be let in or directed to the right entrance. It is not a long conversation. For recipients who do not speak Russian, that brevity is both the problem and, with the right preparation, the solution. The key point for anyone placing an order with a non-Russian-speaking recipient is that the call is not going away — it is a structural part of delivery in this country — so the sensible move is to plan around it rather than hope the courier figures it out alone.

Bouquets we can deliver

Bouquet of 3 white lilies

$48

★ 4.9 · 92 reviews

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Bouquet of 7 alstroemerias mix

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What Language Five Flowers Couriers Speak

Five Flowers operates out of Saint Petersburg, a city with a long international history and a meaningful expat and tourist population, so the situation is more practical than a flat yes-or-no answer suggests. The couriers on our team are native Russian speakers. Most can manage a few words of English — enough to say hello, confirm a name, or indicate they are downstairs — but a full conversation about address corrections, alternative drop-off points, or delivery instructions in English is not something every courier can handle comfortably mid-route. This is honest, and we think customers deserve to know it upfront rather than discover it when a bouquet of spray chrysanthemums or anemones is sitting in the cold. What this means in practical terms: if the recipient speaks no Russian at all, the courier call will still come in Russian by default, because that is the courier's working language. The recipient will hear something along the lines of their name, the word for flowers, and a request to open the door. Many recipients manage this just fine on instinct. Others freeze, especially if they were not told to expect a delivery. The single most effective thing you can do — whether you are the sender or the recipient — is to make sure the recipient knows a delivery is coming, roughly when, and that they should answer any unknown Russian number and simply press the intercom button or come downstairs. That one piece of information solves the majority of language problems before they start.

How to Leave Instructions That Actually Reach the Courier

When you place an order on the Five Flowers website, there is a delivery comment field. This field is read by the team before dispatch, and relevant information is passed to the courier. Use it. Write the access instructions in both English and Russian if you can — Google Translate is good enough for a single sentence about which entrance to use or what the intercom code is. If you cannot write in Russian, write clearly in English and our team will translate before the courier leaves. Useful things to include: the entrance number if the building has several, the intercom code if the main door is always locked, the floor and flat number written out plainly, and a note if the recipient does not speak Russian. That last point is the one most people forget to mention. If we know in advance that the recipient is an English speaker, we can brief the courier on a short script — essentially the courier will say their name and the word for flowers, then wait. We can also, in some cases, arrange for the order manager to call the recipient in English to confirm timing, so the courier call becomes less of a surprise. Specific bouquets like wrapped peonies or large arrangements in water vases require the recipient to actually open a door wide enough to receive them, so confirming access in advance is not just a language issue — it is a practical one about the flowers arriving in good condition.

Sending Flowers to an English-Speaking Recipient: Step by Step

If you are outside Russia ordering flowers for someone who lives or is staying in Saint Petersburg or another city we deliver to, run through this checklist before you confirm the order. First, confirm that the recipient's phone number is a working Russian mobile number. International numbers with country codes other than +7 can cause problems for couriers using standard Russian SIM cards — calls may not connect, or the recipient may not recognise the incoming number format. If the recipient only has a foreign number, note this in the comment field and provide an alternative contact method. Second, tell the recipient directly — by message, email, or whatever you use — that flowers are coming, give them the approximate delivery window, and tell them to answer any call from a Russian number during that window. Third, specify in the order comment whether the recipient speaks Russian, English, or neither. Fourth, if there is a building access issue — a concierge who requires ID, a corporate office with a reception desk, a hotel with a specific delivery entrance — describe it in the comment. Hotels in Saint Petersburg often have English-speaking reception staff who can act as intermediaries, and noting that the recipient is a hotel guest usually results in the courier handing the bouquet to reception, which sidesteps the language call entirely. Bouquets of cut flowers like lisianthus or ranunculus should be kept out of direct heat once received, so the faster the handoff, the better.

When the Recipient Cannot Answer the Phone at All

There are situations where the recipient genuinely cannot take a call — they are in a meeting, they are a patient in a clinic, or they work in a building where phones must be silenced. This is not a language problem specifically, but it intersects with language because a Russian-speaking recipient in this situation can usually leave a note with a colleague or receptionist, while an English-speaking recipient may not know how to communicate that in Russian. The practical solution is to designate an alternative contact on the order. This is a second phone number — a Russian number, ideally — belonging to someone who can receive the courier's call, speak Russian, and either let the courier in or direct them to the right person. Write this number clearly in the delivery comment with a label: alternative contact, speaks Russian. If no alternative contact exists, the next best option is a time-specific delivery window. A two-hour window, say 14:00 to 16:00, is standard. If you need a tighter window — one hour — you can request this, and it is worth doing when the recipient has a known break in their schedule. Delicate flowers like garden roses or sweet peas are sensitive to being held in a courier bag longer than necessary, so a missed delivery that requires a second attempt is bad for the bouquet as well as inconvenient. Planning the window around the recipient's actual availability is always better than hoping for the best.

What Happens If the Call Goes Unanswered

Russian courier practice when a call goes unanswered is fairly consistent: the courier will try the number two or three times over a short period, then contact the shop's dispatch. At Five Flowers, dispatch will then attempt to reach either the recipient or the sender, depending on which contact information is on file. If neither can be reached within a reasonable window, the courier will not leave flowers unattended outside a door — this is standard policy, not specific to language situations, but it matters to understand. Flowers left in a hallway or on a doorstep in a Russian apartment building can disappear, and more practically, cut flowers left at room temperature without water deteriorate quickly. A bouquet of tulips or anemones that sits for two hours in a warm entrance hall will arrive looking significantly worse than when it left the shop. The dispatcher will attempt to reschedule, and in most cases a second delivery attempt can be arranged for the same day if the situation is resolved quickly. If you are the sender and you placed the order from abroad, make sure the phone number you provided for yourself is one you can actually answer during the delivery window — international time zone differences mean that a midday delivery in Saint Petersburg might be the middle of the night for you. Leaving a note in the order comments with the best way to reach you, and the hours you are reachable, helps dispatch resolve problems faster and keeps the flowers in better condition.

Specific Situations: Offices, Hotels and Residential Buildings

The language question plays out differently depending on where the flowers are going. In a standard residential apartment building, the courier call is direct to the recipient, and everything described above applies. In a corporate office, the courier typically calls to say they are at reception, and a Russian-speaking receptionist usually handles the interaction — the recipient just needs to come down to collect. Most large offices in Saint Petersburg have at least one English-speaking staff member at the front desk, so office deliveries to English-speaking recipients are generally the smoothest scenario. In a hotel, the courier delivers to the front desk and the hotel's own staff handles the rest. This is the most language-neutral scenario of all, and if you are sending flowers to someone staying in a hotel, you can note the hotel name and the guest's room number or name in the order, and the delivery will almost certainly go through without any language friction. The scenario that requires the most planning is a private house or a residence in a gated community, where the courier may need to navigate a gate intercom, a security booth, and then a front door — three separate access points, each potentially requiring communication. For these addresses, the comment field should be used in detail: gate code, security contact name if there is one, whether the recipient should be told to wait at the gate. Flowers like large-headed hydrangeas or branches of cherry blossom need careful handling at each handoff point, so the fewer unexpected stops, the better.

The courier call in Russian is not going away, but it is also not the barrier it might seem when you plan around it. Tell the recipient a delivery is coming. Leave clear access instructions in the comment field. Flag if the recipient does not speak Russian. Those three steps cover the vast majority of situations, and our team handles the rest. Five Flowers delivers across Russia, and a significant share of those deliveries go to people who do not speak Russian as their first language — it is a routine situation for us, not an exceptional one. We deliver bouquets across Russia in 1–2 hours.