International Flower Service: How to Send Flowers Across Borders
An international flower service lets you order a bouquet in one country and have it delivered to a person in another, paying online in a single transaction. With Pyat Tsvetov you can send flowers from anywhere to any city in Russia, and also from Russia to 53 countries and more than 1,630 cities, including the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Canada and Egypt.
We have run our own flower shops in Saint Petersburg since 2011, and a large share of our orders comes from people who live far from the person they are sending flowers to. The questions they ask are always practical: whether a foreign card will work, how the courier will find the recipient, what to write on the card, which flowers suit the occasion. This article answers them in order.
What customers ask first: will my foreign card work
The most common question from customers abroad is about payment, and the answer is simple: foreign bank cards are accepted on our site, with payment processed via Robokassa. Russian customers can also pay by bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay. You pay online at the moment of ordering, so there is nothing for the recipient to pay or sign for when the bouquet arrives.
Prices on the site are shown in rubles. For orders to Russian cities, city delivery costs 500 RUB; for remote districts and suburbs, our operator confirms the delivery price when confirming the order. Your bank converts the ruble amount into your card currency at its own rate, so the figure on your statement may differ slightly from a rough conversion you made yourself.
Companies sometimes need different payment arrangements for corporate gifts sent to Russian colleagues or clients. We have a separate article on how international companies pay for flower orders in Russia that covers the questions finance departments usually raise.
How an order to Russia moves from your screen to the door
You choose a bouquet in the bouquets catalogue, enter the recipient's name, phone number and address, write the card text and pay. Then you choose the timing. In large cities, express delivery arrives 1-2 hours after the order is confirmed. You can also ask for an exact time, give or take 30 minutes, choose a window - 09-12, 12-15, 15-18 or 18-21 - or place the order 1 to 30 days in advance.
In Saint Petersburg, where our own shops are, delivery runs around the clock, which matters when you are in a very different time zone and want flowers to arrive first thing in the morning or late in the evening. For other Russian cities, the time windows above are the practical way to plan around your recipient's day.
About 15 minutes before arrival, the courier calls the recipient. If nobody is home, we agree a second delivery the same day, or, with your consent, hand the bouquet to a neighbour or concierge. This is why a correct recipient phone number is the single most important detail in the whole order; a wrong digit causes more failed deliveries than any wrong address.
Bouquets we can deliver
Sending flowers from Russia to other countries
The service also works in the other direction. If you live in Russia and want flowers to reach someone in Berlin, London, New York or Cairo, you place the order the same way as for a Russian city: choose a bouquet on the country or city page, enter the address and the card text, and pay online in rubles. The price shown is already converted to rubles and already includes delivery.
All 53 countries and the cities we cover are listed on the flower delivery abroad page. That page is in Russian, so if you are not comfortable reading it, look for the country name in the list - the city pages follow the same layout as the rest of the site. Keep in mind that the 500 RUB delivery fee and the express and time-window conditions apply to Russian cities; for orders abroad, delivery is included in the bouquet price.
For a longer comparison of both directions, including how to plan around holidays in different countries, see our guide to international flower delivery to and from Russia.
Writing the card when you cannot be there
The card is free with every order and carries more weight in an international order than in a local one, because it replaces your presence. Customers often ask how long the text should be. Two to four lines read best on a standard card; longer letters are better sent by message so the card stays legible. Write the recipient's name the way they are used to being called - a diminutive name in Russian often feels warmer than a full formal one.
Delivery is anonymous by default: the courier does not name the sender. If you want the recipient to know who sent the flowers, sign the card. If you are planning a surprise and want to stay anonymous, leave the signature off and say so in the order, so nobody accidentally gives you away when they call.
When you write in a language the recipient reads less comfortably, keep the sentences short and plain. Many of our customers abroad write the card in Russian for parents and grandparents and in English for friends or colleagues; both work, as long as you type the text exactly as you want it printed.
Russian flower etiquette worth knowing before you order
Russian etiquette has a few rules that surprise customers from other countries. For a celebration, bouquets traditionally have an odd number of stems; even numbers are associated with funerals and remembrance. This applies mainly to small bouquets of single-stem flowers such as roses or tulips. In large arrangements with a dozen or more stems, few people count, but if you are sending seven or nine roses to an older relative, keep the number odd.
Yellow flowers once carried a meaning of separation, and some older people still remember it, so yellow roses on their own are a risky choice for a romantic gift. In a mixed bouquet, yellow is simply cheerful and nobody reads anything into it. Red roses are firmly romantic; for mothers, teachers and colleagues, customers more often choose pastel roses, chrysanthemums, eustoma or mixed seasonal bouquets.
Holidays drive timing. March 8, International Women's Day, is the busiest flower day of the year in Russia, and September 1 is when children bring flowers to teachers. For March 8 in particular, ordering several days in advance is sensible; our article on International Women's Day in Russia explains the customs behind it.
Practical checklist for an international order
Before you pay, check four things: the recipient's phone number with the country code, the full address including the flat number and entrance or building details, the delivery date in the recipient's local time, and the card text. Most problems customers call us about later come from one of these four, and every one of them takes a minute to fix before ordering and much longer afterwards.
Time zones catch people out. Russia spans many of them, and an order placed in the evening in North America may already fall on the next day in Russia. If the date matters, such as a birthday or anniversary, choose a time window or an exact time rather than leaving delivery open, and use pre-ordering if you know the date well in advance.
If anything in the order is unclear - an address without a flat number, a recipient who works shifts, a delivery to an office or a hospital - call us on 8 (812) 507-67-05 before or after ordering. Our staff in Saint Petersburg handle these situations every day and can tell you quickly whether a detail needs changing. We deliver bouquets across Russia in 1–2 hours.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay for flowers to Russia with a foreign bank card?
Yes. Foreign bank cards are accepted on our site, and payment goes through Robokassa. The price is shown in rubles and your bank converts it to your card currency.
How fast can flowers be delivered in Russia?
In large cities, express delivery takes 1-2 hours after the order is confirmed. You can also choose an exact time, a delivery window, or pre-order 1 to 30 days ahead.
Which countries can I send flowers to from Russia?
We deliver to 53 countries and more than 1,630 cities, including the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Canada and Egypt. The full list is on our flower delivery abroad page.
Will the recipient know who sent the flowers?
Only if you sign the card. Delivery is anonymous by default, and the courier does not name the sender.
What happens if the recipient is not at home?
The courier calls about 15 minutes before arrival. If the recipient is out, we arrange a second delivery the same day or, with your consent, leave the flowers with a neighbour or concierge.
Ready to send a bouquet?
Pick a city, choose the flowers, and we will hand them over with a photo confirmation.
Choose a city →