English Delivery Instructions on the Order Form: What We Accept
Customers ordering from outside Russia — or simply more comfortable writing in English — ask this every week: can they type their delivery notes in English and trust that someone will actually read them? The short answer is yes, with a few practical limits that are worth understanding before you confirm the order.
The Order Form Has One Comments Field and It Reads Both Languages
The checkout form on 5cv.ru has a single free-text comments box that sits below the address fields. Our team reads every entry in that box before an order is dispatched, and staff at the dispatch desk handle English text routinely because a significant share of incoming orders come from customers based abroad or from expats living in Saint Petersburg. You do not need to switch to Russian, use a translation app, or leave the field blank out of uncertainty. Type your instruction in plain English and it will be read. That said, the comments field is not a chat window — it is processed once at order confirmation, not monitored in real time after that. If your instruction is time-sensitive and you submitted it close to the delivery window, call or message us directly to confirm it was captured. The field accepts standard Latin characters, numerals, and punctuation. Cyrillic is fine too if you happen to know it, but there is no requirement. Where customers run into trouble is not the language itself but the level of detail: a note that says 'leave at the door' is actionable, while 'be careful' is not. Think in terms of what a courier standing in a lobby needs to know — door code, floor, whether to ring or not, whether someone will be home — and write that, in English, as specifically as you can.
Bouquets we can deliver
Entrance Codes, Floor Numbers and Gate Pins: Write Them in Digits
Saint Petersburg residential buildings almost universally have a coded entrance panel called a domofon. Without the correct code the courier cannot enter the building, which means the bouquet waits outside in whatever weather is happening — and in November that can mean sub-zero temperatures that will damage ranunculus petals or cause tulip stems to freeze and turn glassy within twenty minutes. Write the entrance code as a sequence of digits with no ambiguity: '3847 then call button' or 'code 12#' works perfectly in English. If there are multiple entrances on a long building, specify which one by number or by the nearest street landmark. Floor and flat numbers are already collected in the address fields, but if your building has a separate stairwell system — common in older Soviet-era blocks — add that in the comments. Gate codes for private houses or gated courtyards follow the same rule: digits, no approximations. If the gate is usually open during daytime but locked after a certain hour, say that explicitly, because our delivery window for same-day orders can run into the evening. English phrasing like 'gate code is 55A, press star after' is completely clear to the team and will be passed to the courier on a printed dispatch note. Never assume the courier will phone and figure it out — give the code upfront and save everyone the delay.
Recipient Instructions: What to Tell the Person Receiving the Bouquet
Sometimes the delivery is a surprise and the recipient must not know who sent it, or the order is for an office and the bouquet should go to reception rather than directly to a named person's desk. These are both common scenarios and both are easy to handle in English in the comments field. Write 'do not mention the sender's name' or 'hand to reception only, do not go to the third floor' and the courier will follow that. What matters is that the instruction is unambiguous. Russian gift culture does have a few conventions that catch international customers off guard. It is considered polite for the courier to hand the bouquet directly to the recipient rather than leaving it on a windowsill or in a mailbox, so if you want a contactless drop-off, say so explicitly — otherwise the courier will attempt a personal handover. Also, bouquets here are almost always wrapped and tied, so there is no need to ask for wrapping; it is standard. If you want the card message written in English rather than Russian, note that in the comments too: 'card text in English please.' We write the card by hand, so the language of your message is the language that appears. Peonies, roses, and freesias all travel well in our insulated packaging for the standard delivery window, but if the recipient will not be home for several hours after delivery, mention that so we can advise on the right stem conditioning for that variety.
Flower Variety Requests and Substitutions: Be Specific in Any Language
The comments field is also where customers request specific varieties, ask to avoid certain flowers, or flag allergies. English works fine here, but vague requests create problems regardless of language. 'I want something nice' cannot be acted on. 'Please include white spray roses and no lilies' can be. If you are ordering a composed bouquet and want to substitute a flower — say, replacing alstroemeria with lisianthus because the recipient dislikes the former — write that clearly and we will do it if the variety is in stock that day. Stock rotates daily because we work with fresh-cut flowers that arrive from auction several times a week. Varieties like garden roses, ranunculus, and anemones are seasonal, so a substitution request for a flower that is simply not available that week will be flagged and we will contact you. Provide a fallback in your note: 'if no white lisianthus, white eustoma is fine.' That kind of instruction in English is perfectly readable and saves a back-and-forth call. Allergy notes are taken seriously. If the recipient has a known sensitivity to strongly scented flowers — Oriental lilies and hyacinths are the most common triggers — write that in the comments and we will build the bouquet around low-pollen, low-fragrance varieties such as spray chrysanthemums, solidago, or ranunculus. These substitutions do not reduce the visual quality of the arrangement; they just shift the palette.
Timing Requests and Delivery Windows: How to Phrase Them
Our standard delivery operates within a one-to-two hour window from order confirmation, and the checkout form lets you select a time slot. But customers often want to refine that further — deliver before noon, deliver exactly at six in the evening for a birthday dinner, or avoid a specific thirty-minute window when the recipient will be in a meeting. All of these can go in the comments field in English. Use the twenty-four-hour clock format for clarity: '18:00' is unambiguous across languages, while '6 pm' is readable but '6 o'clock' with no AM or PM marker is not. If you are ordering from a time zone several hours behind Moscow, double-check that your requested time is written in Moscow time, because that is the clock our dispatch team works on. Saint Petersburg and Moscow share the same time zone — UTC+3 — so there is no conversion needed between the two cities, but customers ordering from London, Berlin, or New York need to do that conversion themselves and state it clearly: 'please deliver at 15:00 Moscow time.' If the timing is tied to an event — a meeting that ends at a specific hour, a restaurant reservation — mention the reason briefly. It helps the dispatcher prioritize and also helps the courier make a judgment call if, for example, traffic on Nevsky Prospekt is running slow that afternoon.
What Happens to Your English Note After You Submit the Order
Once you confirm the order, the comments field content is attached to the order record that the dispatch team sees on their screen. It is not automatically translated by software — a person reads it. The dispatcher reviews the note, flags anything that needs clarification, and if there is a question, contacts you by the phone number or email provided at checkout. This is worth knowing because it means your English instruction is being read by a human, not parsed by a machine, which is actually better for nuanced requests. The dispatch team will reach out in Russian by default, but if your number is a foreign mobile, they will try English. If you prefer to be contacted in English, write 'please contact me in English if needed' in the comments — that instruction is followed. After dispatch, the note is passed to the courier in printed form. Couriers are not required to speak English, so any instruction that requires a spoken conversation at the door — explaining a complex situation to a confused recipient, for example — should be handled by you calling the recipient directly. The courier's job is to follow the written instruction: door code, floor, handover preference, card message. Keep your English note focused on those practical logistics and it will be executed accurately. Instructions that require interpretation or judgment calls beyond the physical delivery are better handled with a phone call from your side.
Common Mistakes in Delivery Comments Regardless of Language
The most frequent problem we see is not the language of the instruction but its incompleteness. A note that says 'surprise delivery' tells the courier nothing actionable — it does not say whether to avoid ringing the bell, whether to hand the bouquet to a neighbor, or whether the recipient knows a delivery is coming and just not the sender's identity. Write out the full scenario. Another common mistake is writing the building entrance code in the address field and the actual street address in the comments box — this swaps the data into the wrong fields and causes delays at dispatch when someone has to manually sort it out. Use each field for its intended purpose and put supplementary detail in comments. Customers also sometimes write instructions that contradict the time slot selected at checkout. If you book a morning slot but write 'please deliver in the afternoon,' the comments field does not override the booked slot — you need to either change the slot or contact us to adjust it. Flowers are perishable and the schedule matters: a bouquet of tulips assembled at eight in the morning and held until three in the afternoon without refrigeration will show visible wilting, particularly in a warm apartment lobby. Finally, do not use the comments field to change the recipient's phone number or address after submission — those fields are locked once the order is confirmed. Contact us directly for any address change, because a courier already en route to the wrong address cannot be redirected by a comment update.
Writing your delivery instructions in English on the Five Flowers order form is fully supported, and the team processes those notes before every dispatch. The language is not the variable that determines whether an instruction works — specificity is. Door codes in digits, floor numbers, timing in twenty-four-hour Moscow time, variety preferences with a named fallback, and clear recipient handover preferences: these are the details that make a delivery go smoothly, and they read just as well in English as in Russian. We deliver bouquets across Russia in 1–2 hours.
Frequently asked questions
Will a courier understand my English note at the door?
The courier receives a printed dispatch note summarizing your instructions, so they do not need to read or speak English themselves. The note is prepared by the dispatch team who read your original English comment and translate the key logistics — door code, floor, handover preference — into the courier's working language before departure.
Can I request a specific flower variety in English in the comments?
Yes. Name the variety clearly — white ranunculus, peach spray roses, blue delphiniums — and include a fallback in case that variety is not in stock on your delivery date. Stock changes daily with fresh arrivals, so a named alternative prevents a delay while we wait for your callback to confirm a substitution.
What if I need to change my English instruction after the order is confirmed?
The comments field is locked after confirmation. Contact the shop directly by phone or messenger with your order number and the updated instruction. Do not add a new order to communicate a change — reach us through the contact channels on the site so the dispatcher can update the active order record before the bouquet is dispatched.
Can I write the card message in English?
Yes, and it will be handwritten on the card exactly as you typed it. Note in the comments that you want the card in English so the team does not default to Russian. Keep the message under about forty words so it fits legibly on the card format we use for standard bouquet packaging.
Is there a risk my English note will be misread or ignored?
Every order comment is read by a person at dispatch, not processed by automated translation software. If something in your note is unclear, the team contacts you before sending the courier. Writing in plain, direct English — short sentences, digits for codes and times — reduces the chance of any ambiguity and speeds up the confirmation step.
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