Delivery Instructions in English: Where to Enter Them and What Happens Next
Customers ordering from outside Russia, or simply more comfortable writing in English, ask this question regularly: can the note field in the order form handle English text, and will anyone actually read it? The short answer is yes on both counts. The Five Flowers team in Saint Petersburg works with English-language instructions every day, and the order form accepts any Latin-script input without issue. What matters is knowing which field to use, what level of detail genuinely helps the courier, and what kinds of instructions cannot be acted on no matter what language they are written in.
Where the Instruction Field Sits in the Order Form
The Five Flowers order form has a dedicated free-text field labelled for delivery comments or courier instructions. It appears after you have filled in the recipient's address and chosen a delivery window, and before the payment step. This is the correct place for any note you want the courier to see — not the gift card message field, which goes only to the recipient and is printed or read aloud, not passed to the logistics team. Many customers type their personal note to the recipient in the courier instructions box by mistake, and that message then never reaches the person receiving the flowers while the courier arrives with no guidance on entry codes or gate procedures. Keep the two fields separate: one is operational, one is personal. The instruction field has no character limit that you are likely to hit in practice, so write in full sentences if that helps you be precise. The team reads the field in the original language you typed — nothing is auto-translated before it reaches the person packing and dispatching the order, so clear English phrasing is better than a translation you are unsure about.
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How the Team Processes English Notes Before Dispatch
Once an order is confirmed, the instructions field is reviewed by the coordinator on shift before the bouquet is assembled and before the courier is briefed. For standard residential deliveries in Saint Petersburg, this review happens within the first fifteen to twenty minutes after order confirmation during daytime hours. The coordinator checks for anything that affects assembly — for example, a note saying the recipient is allergic to strongly scented flowers like freesia or oriental lilies, or that the bouquet should avoid white roses because of a previous order the customer wants to vary. Those details change what goes into the arrangement before it is wrapped. Instructions that affect the courier — a specific entrance number in a large residential complex, a request to call the recipient five minutes before arrival, or a note that the concierge should be handed the flowers if there is no answer — are passed directly to the driver. English phrasing does not slow this process down. The team is accustomed to notes written in English and reads them without needing to pause for translation tools. Where a note is genuinely ambiguous, the coordinator will call the ordering customer on the contact number provided, so make sure that number is reachable.
What to Write About the Flowers Themselves
If you have a preference about specific varieties or want to exclude something, the instruction field is the right place to say so. Write the variety name in English — ranunculus, lisianthus, garden roses, spray chrysanthemums, tulips, hyacinths — and the team will match it against what is available in the workshop that day. Availability shifts with the season and with delivery schedules from growers, so an instruction saying 'please include peach ranunculus if available' is more useful than a hard demand, because it gives the florist room to substitute with something of similar character, such as garden roses in a warm apricot tone, if ranunculus stock is low. Colour preferences are easy to specify in English: dusty pink, burgundy, cream, coral. Avoid vague terms like 'natural' or 'romantic' without a colour anchor, because those words mean different things to different people and the florist needs something concrete to work with. You can also note stem count if you have ordered a custom arrangement rather than a fixed product — for example, 'I would like the roses to be the dominant flower, with greenery kept minimal.' Temperature sensitivity is handled by the workshop regardless of your note: all arrangements are kept at the correct cool temperature until the courier collects them, but if you know the recipient's home runs very warm, mentioning it allows the team to add a water-retaining wrap for longer freshness.
Address Details That English-Speaking Customers Often Miss
Saint Petersburg addresses can be complicated for someone unfamiliar with the city's building numbering system. A single postal address can correspond to several physical entrances spread across a long facade, and large residential estates built in the Soviet period often have a main address with a building letter or number suffix — korpus — that is easy to overlook when copying from a map app. If you know the recipient's entrance number, write it: 'entrance 3, code 47K.' If you do not know it, say so in the note — 'I am not sure of the entrance number, please call the recipient on arrival' — so the courier does not spend time searching. Business addresses in the city centre sometimes have a separate entrance for deliveries that differs from the main client entrance; if you know this, include it. For gated residential communities, which are increasingly common in the newer districts on the outskirts, note whether the recipient needs to be called to open the gate or whether there is a guard post. All of this can be written in plain English. The courier is briefed in Russian by the coordinator, so the translation step happens internally — you do not need to attempt Russian transliteration of street names if you are not confident in it; the address fields handle those separately in standardised form.
Timing Instructions and What Can Realistically Be Promised
Five Flowers delivers within a one-to-two-hour window across Saint Petersburg, and the order form asks you to select a delivery slot when you place the order. If you have a specific timing need within that slot — for example, the recipient has a meeting until noon and should not be disturbed before twelve-fifteen — write that in the instruction field. The coordinator will pass it to the courier and flag the order for the later part of the chosen window. What cannot be guaranteed through an instruction is a delivery to the minute, because road conditions in the city, particularly during winter when snowfall slows traffic on Nevsky Prospekt and the bridges, introduce variability. Do not write instructions like 'deliver at exactly 14:00' and expect that to function as a hard commitment; write 'please aim for after 14:00 within the selected window' and the team will do its best to honour that. If the timing is genuinely critical — a surprise at a specific moment during a celebration — call the shop directly after placing the order so the coordinator can assess whether the window you have chosen is realistic for the address. Instructions about leaving the flowers with a neighbour or building manager if the recipient is not home are also worth including, along with the neighbour's apartment number if known.
Common Mistakes in Delivery Notes and How to Avoid Them
The most frequent problem is writing the gift card message in the courier instructions field. The card message is personal and should be warm and private; the courier instruction is operational and should be factual. Mixing them means the courier reads a declaration of affection looking for an entrance code, and the recipient gets no card. Always check which field you are filling before you type. The second common mistake is leaving the instruction field empty when the address genuinely needs clarification, on the assumption that the courier will figure it out. In a city of five million people with complex residential infrastructure, that assumption costs time and occasionally results in a missed delivery window. A third mistake is writing instructions that contradict the product already ordered — for example, asking for 'no lilies' after ordering a bouquet that is described on the product page as built around Oriental lilies. Check the product description before writing exclusions, and if you need a substitution, contact the shop before confirming the order rather than relying on the note to undo a product choice. Finally, some customers write very long notes covering every possible scenario. Three to five clear, specific sentences are more useful than a paragraph covering contingencies that are unlikely to arise, because a shorter note is read and retained more reliably by the courier in the field.
English-language delivery instructions are a normal part of how Five Flowers operates, and the order form is fully equipped to receive them. The key is putting operational detail — entrance codes, timing preferences, flower substitutions, access notes — in the courier instructions field, and keeping the gift card message in its own separate field. Specific and brief outperforms long and general every time. If something about the delivery situation is genuinely complicated, the safest step after placing the order is a quick call to the shop so the coordinator can confirm the plan before the bouquet is wrapped and the courier is on the road. Доставим букет по России за 1–2 часа.
Frequently asked questions
Will my English instructions be understood by the courier, or only by office staff?
The coordinator on shift reads your English note and briefs the courier in Russian before dispatch, so the driver receives the information in their working language. You do not need to worry about the courier reading English directly — the translation step happens internally as part of the standard order preparation process.
Can I request a specific flower variety in the instruction field if it is not listed on the product page?
Yes, and it is worth doing. Write the variety name clearly — lisianthus, garden roses, ranunculus — and note whether it is a firm preference or a suggestion. The florist checks availability against workshop stock that day. Framing it as 'please include if available' gives the team flexibility to substitute something similar in colour and texture if the exact variety is not in stock.
What happens if my instruction is unclear and the team cannot reach me?
If the coordinator cannot interpret an instruction and cannot reach the ordering customer on the contact number provided, the order is prepared and delivered using the best available interpretation of the note. This is why a reachable phone number matters as much as the instruction itself — ambiguous notes are resolved by a quick call, not by guessing.
Is there a difference between the gift card field and the delivery instruction field in the order form?
Yes, and the difference is important. The gift card field produces text that goes to the recipient — printed on a card or read aloud. The delivery instruction field goes to the logistics team and the courier. Putting personal messages in the instruction field means the recipient never sees them. Putting address codes in the card field means the courier never sees them.
Can I change my delivery instructions after the order is confirmed?
Contact the shop by phone as soon as possible after placing the order. Instructions can be updated by the coordinator up until the point the courier collects the bouquet. Once the driver is en route, changes to address details or timing are harder to action, so earlier contact gives the team more room to adjust the plan before the order leaves the workshop.
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