Personalised Note with Flower Delivery: Where to Write It and What Gets Printed
Every week someone calls us after placing an order to ask whether their message actually made it onto the card. It did — but only if they found the right field. The checkout at 5cv.ru has one dedicated text box for gift messages, and it is separate from the delivery address notes and the order comments. Missing that distinction is the single most common reason a bouquet of garden roses or a box of peonies arrives with a blank card tucked inside.
Where the Gift Message Field Sits in the Checkout
Once you have chosen your bouquet and clicked through to checkout, the page splits into three blocks: recipient details, delivery details, and order extras. The gift message field lives in the third block, labelled 'Card text' or 'Text for the card' depending on the language your browser is set to. It is not inside the delivery address section, and it is not the small 'Comments for the courier' line that appears right before payment. Those two fields are read by logistics staff and never appear on the printed card. The gift message box is visually set apart — it has a small envelope icon on desktop and sits directly above the bouquet summary on mobile. If you scroll past it quickly you will miss it entirely, which is exactly what happens when customers are rushing. The safest approach is to fill the message field before you enter any payment details, so you are not distracted by card numbers and expiry dates. After you submit the order you will receive a confirmation email that quotes your message back to you verbatim. If the confirmation email shows a blank where the message should be, call us immediately — orders can be amended up to forty minutes before the scheduled delivery window, which for same-day orders in Saint Petersburg is usually a hard cut-off around midday for afternoon slots.
Bouquets we can deliver
Character Limits and What They Mean in Practice
The gift message field accepts up to two hundred characters including spaces and punctuation. That sounds generous until you try to write something in Russian, where a single word like 'поздравляю' already costs eleven characters. Two hundred characters is roughly two to three short sentences in English, or one and a half sentences in Russian if you are being formal. We print the card in the font and size that fits the physical card included with that particular bouquet. Standard bouquets come with a small folded card roughly the size of a business card doubled over. Larger arrangements — think a hatbox of fifty spray roses or a grand mixed bouquet — include a slightly bigger card, but the character limit in the field stays the same regardless of which product you ordered. If your message runs right to the limit, the florist will print exactly what you typed, including any typos. There is no autocorrect on our end. We have printed 'Happy Birtday' and 'Congradulations' without editorial intervention because the customer's intention is not ours to rewrite. For longer dedications — wedding anniversaries, milestone birthdays, a full verse — we suggest writing the core sentiment in the card field and including a separate handwritten letter in the order comments, noting that you would like it enclosed. We can attach a sealed envelope to the bouquet at no extra cost; just mention it in the comments before you check out.
Languages You Can Use and How They Print
The field accepts any Unicode text, which in practice means Russian in Cyrillic, English in Latin script, and most European languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish. Arabic and Chinese characters are accepted by the field but may not render correctly on the physical card because the card printer uses a standard Cyrillic and Latin font set. If you need Arabic or Chinese, contact us by phone before ordering so we can confirm the current printer capability. Mixing scripts in a single message works fine — many customers write 'С днём рождения, my love' or 'Happy New Year — с любовью' — and both scripts print cleanly on the same card. Emoji do not print. The field will accept them and your confirmation email will show them, but the printer strips all emoji before output, so what arrives on the card is a blank space where the heart or the star was. If you want to express warmth, use words. One thing worth knowing for customers unfamiliar with Russian gift culture: it is completely normal here to write a message in English even when the recipient speaks Russian. Many recipients find an English message charming rather than confusing, particularly for romantic bouquets of red or peach roses.
What the Physical Card Looks Like and How It Is Attached
The card is a folded white card of standard weight, uncoated, which means it absorbs ink cleanly and does not smear when handled. Your message is printed on the inside right panel in black ink. The inside left panel is blank — we do not print logos or promotional text there. The outside front of the card carries a small Five Flowers logo and nothing else. The card is inserted into a small white envelope, sealed, and attached to the bouquet with a satin ribbon or a florist's pin depending on the wrapping style. For kraft-paper wrapping, which is our default for most seasonal bouquets, the envelope is pinned to the outer layer. For box arrangements — hatboxes of hydrangeas or tulip boxes — the envelope is placed inside the box lid so it is the first thing the recipient sees when opening. For bouquets wrapped in decorative fabric or organza, the card is tucked into the ribbon knot. The envelope is not waterproof. If the bouquet is delivered in rain or snow — both common in Saint Petersburg from October through March — and left unattended at a door, the envelope may get damp. The card inside is protected by the envelope for short exposure, but a bouquet sitting outside for more than twenty minutes in heavy rain risks a soggy card. If the recipient is unlikely to be home, note a safe sheltered spot in the courier comments, not in the gift message field.
Timing: When to Add the Note and When It Is Too Late
The gift message can be edited up to forty minutes before the start of your chosen delivery window. After that point the order has moved to the assembly stage and the card has either been printed or is queued for printing. For same-day delivery orders placed before noon, the cut-off for message changes is typically around thirty minutes after you place the order, because same-day slots move fast. For next-day and scheduled deliveries, you have more flexibility — you can log into your order confirmation link and update the message up to the evening before the delivery date. The confirmation email contains a direct link to your order summary. If you cannot find that link, call the shop and give your order number; a florist can update the card text manually if the order has not yet reached the print queue. One timing trap that catches customers regularly: ordering a bouquet of, say, white freesias and alstroemeria at 11:45 for a noon delivery window. There is almost no time to add or change a note in that gap. If you are ordering close to a delivery window, write the message before you select the time slot, not after. The checkout saves your text as you type, so even if you navigate away briefly the field usually retains its content, but do not rely on that — paste your message from a notes app if it matters to you.
Anonymous Delivery and What Happens to the Sender Name
By default the card does not print your name unless you include it in the message text. The checkout does not automatically append 'From: [your name]' to the card. This surprises many customers, particularly those sending flowers as a surprise. If you want the recipient to know who sent the bouquet, you must write your name or a recognisable sign-off inside the message itself. Something like 'With love, Andrei' or simply 'From M.' is enough. If you specifically want the delivery to be anonymous — a common request for Valentine's Day and International Women's Day on the eighth of March, which is the largest flower-sending date in Russia — simply omit any identifying information from the card text. The courier will not volunteer your name. The delivery receipt that goes to the recipient shows only the shop name and the bouquet description, not the buyer's contact details. However, if the recipient calls us to ask who sent the flowers, our policy is to neither confirm nor deny the sender's identity. We do not reveal customer data. One edge case worth noting: if the order was placed using a corporate account registered to a company name, that company name may appear on the delivery paperwork visible to the recipient. If anonymity matters, place the order through a personal account rather than a business account, and double-check the billing name that appears in your checkout summary before you pay.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
The most frequent mistake is typing the gift message into the courier comments field. Courier comments are operational — they tell the driver about entry codes, floor numbers, or a request to call ahead. They are never transferred to the card. The second most common mistake is leaving the gift message field completely blank because the customer assumed we would write something generic. We do not. A blank field means a blank card, full stop. If you are stuck for words, even 'Happy Birthday' is better than nothing, and our florists have seen every variation of short message — brevity is not rude. The third mistake is including the recipient's phone number or address inside the gift message text. That information goes in the delivery fields, not the card. A card reading 'Happy anniversary! Call me on 89XXXXXXXXX' is not romantic. The fourth mistake is using all capitals. The printer renders your text exactly as typed, and ALL CAPS on a small card reads as shouting rather than emphasis. Use standard sentence case. The fifth mistake, less common but memorable, is copying and pasting text from a document that contains invisible formatting characters or curly quotation marks. These sometimes render as small squares or question marks on the printed card. If you are pasting from Word or Google Docs, paste into a plain text editor first to strip formatting, then copy again into the card field. A quick read of your confirmation email will catch any rendering issues before the card is printed.
A gift message is a small thing that lands with more weight than the price of the bouquet. Whether you are sending a bunch of garden spray roses to a colleague or a large arrangement of peonies and lisianthus to someone you love, the card is what they keep. The field is there, it is simple, and it takes thirty seconds to fill correctly. Use it, check your confirmation email to verify the text printed back, and if anything looks wrong call us before the assembly cut-off. The flowers do the visual work; the card does the lasting one. We deliver bouquets across Russia in 1–2 hours.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add a gift message after I have already paid for the order?
Yes, but only within the editing window. For same-day orders that window is roughly forty minutes from the moment you place the order. For scheduled next-day deliveries you can update the message until the evening before. Use the link in your confirmation email or call the shop with your order number and a florist will update the card text manually if the order has not yet reached the print queue.
Will the card show my name automatically, or do I need to write it myself?
You need to write it yourself. The system does not append your name or contact details to the card text. If you want the recipient to know who sent the bouquet, include a sign-off like 'From Anna' or 'With love, your brother' inside the message field. If you leave your name out entirely, the delivery is effectively anonymous.
Can I write the message in English if the recipient speaks Russian?
Absolutely. The field accepts Latin and Cyrillic script, and you can mix both in one message. In Russia it is common and considered warm to receive a card in English, especially for romantic occasions. The printer handles both scripts cleanly on the same card. Emoji, however, do not print — use words instead of symbols.
What if two hundred characters are not enough for what I want to say?
Write the core message in the card field and use the courier comments to ask us to enclose a sealed envelope. You can hand-write a longer letter, seal it, and include it with the bouquet at no extra charge — just mention it clearly in the comments before checkout. Many customers do this for anniversaries, milestone birthdays, and significant occasions where a short card feels insufficient.
Is the card protected from rain during delivery in winter?
The card sits inside a sealed envelope attached to the bouquet, which protects it during normal transit. However, if the bouquet is left unattended outside in heavy rain or snow for more than about twenty minutes the envelope can become damp. If the recipient may not be home, add a note in the courier comments specifying a sheltered spot — a doorstep alcove, a concierge desk — rather than leaving this to chance.
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