How to Send Flowers to Russia from Israel: Timing, Payment and What to Order

Every week someone calls us from Tel Aviv or Haifa trying to send flowers to a mother in Saint Petersburg or a colleague in Moscow, and the conversation almost always starts the same way: they have no idea what time it is in Russia right now, they are not sure their Israeli card will go through, and they have written the address in a way our courier cannot actually use. None of these problems is difficult to solve, but you do need to know the rules before you place the order, not after the bouquet is already on its way.

The Time Difference Between Israel and Russia and Why It Changes Everything

Israel operates on Israel Standard Time, which is UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 during daylight saving. Saint Petersburg and Moscow run on Moscow Time, which is UTC+3 all year round and never shifts for daylight saving. That means in Israeli winter you are one hour behind Russia, and in Israeli summer the clocks are actually equal. The practical consequence is this: if you sit down in Tel Aviv on a Tuesday morning at nine o'clock in January to order flowers for a birthday lunch in Saint Petersburg, it is already ten o'clock there, and a same-day noon delivery is genuinely tight. We need roughly an hour and a half from confirmed payment to the moment the courier rings the doorbell, so placing the order before ten Moscow Time gives us comfortable room to work. The mistake we see most often from senders abroad is ordering in the evening by their local clock without realising that Russia has already moved into the next calendar day. A birthday on the fifteenth becomes a delivery on the sixteenth, and no florist can fix that retroactively. Check the Moscow Time zone before you choose a delivery slot, write it into the order notes explicitly, and if the event is in a city east of Moscow — Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok — add the extra hours accordingly. We deliver across Russia, but the time gap widens significantly once you move past the Ural mountains.

Bouquets we can deliver

Bouquet of 3 white lilies

$48

★ 4.9 · 117 reviews

Mixed bouquet of 7 red roses and 8 alstroemerias

$85

★ 4.9 · 109 reviews

Mixed bouquet of 3 chrysanthemums and 3 alstroemerias

$45

★ 4.9 · 67 reviews

Bouquet of 11 red roses, Ecuador, 50 cm

$66

★ 4.9 · 67 reviews

How Payment Works When You Are Ordering from an Israeli Bank Card

Israeli Visa and Mastercard cards issued by the main local banks — Hapoalim, Leumi, Discount, Mizrahi-Tefahot — process successfully on our website in the overwhelming majority of cases, but there are two things that trip people up regularly. First, some Israeli banks flag cross-border transactions to Russian merchant accounts and place a temporary hold or decline on the first attempt. If your card is refused, call your bank before assuming the site has a problem: a single confirmation call to the bank usually unlocks the transaction immediately, and you can retry within minutes. Second, the charge will appear on your statement in roubles converted at your bank's exchange rate on the day of the transaction, not at any rate we set. We do not charge currency conversion fees on our end, but your bank may apply its own spread. PayPal is not available for Russia transactions under current international banking restrictions, so card payment is the straightforward route. We also accept transfers via certain international payment systems; contact us directly by phone or messenger if your card is repeatedly declined and we will find a working method together. One more practical note: Israeli corporate cards sometimes require an additional 3D Secure step that sends a code to an Israeli mobile number. Make sure that number is active and receiving SMS at the moment you check out, because the code expires in about three minutes and a failed 3D Secure attempt does not hold your order.

Writing a Russian Address Correctly So the Courier Can Actually Find the Door

Russian addresses follow a specific order that is the reverse of what Israelis write on envelopes, and getting this wrong is the single most common reason a delivery is delayed. In Russia the address goes from largest to smallest: city, then district if relevant, then street name, then building number, then apartment number. A typical Saint Petersburg address looks like this — Sankt-Peterburg, ulitsa Lenina, dom 12, kvartira 47. The words ulitsa (street), prospekt (avenue), pereulok (lane) and naberezhnaya (embankment) are part of the official address and must be included. Building numbers in Russia often have a corpus or stroenie suffix, meaning a secondary building on the same plot — for example, dom 5 korpus 2. If the recipient lives in a building with a corpus and you omit it, the courier will stand at the wrong entrance. For large residential complexes, the entrance number (podyezd) and the floor (etazh) are also extremely helpful, though not always mandatory. Write the recipient's full name in Russian if possible, or at minimum in Latin transliteration that matches their Russian passport name. Always include a working Russian mobile number for the recipient — our courier calls ahead in Russian, and if nobody picks up or the number is Israeli, the delivery stalls. If you are not certain of the exact address, call the recipient discreetly before ordering rather than guessing, because a wrong address means a wasted bouquet.

Which Flowers Travel Best and Which Bouquets Make Sense to Order from Abroad

You are not physically present to choose stems, which means you are trusting us to select flowers that are at the right stage of opening for a one-to-two-hour local delivery. That is exactly what we do every day, so the process is the same as for any local order — we cut and arrange on the morning of delivery, not the day before. What matters from your side is choosing varieties that are robust rather than delicate. Roses, particularly spray roses and large-headed garden varieties, hold their shape well and are available year-round in Saint Petersburg. Chrysanthemums, both single-stem and santini, are extremely durable and suit both casual and formal occasions. Eustoma, also called lisianthus, opens slowly and looks fresh for days, making it a good choice when you are not sure exactly when the recipient will be home. Tulips are wonderful but strongly seasonal — Dutch imports are at their best in Russia from February through April, and outside that window quality drops noticeably. We are honest about this when you ask. Orchid branches, particularly Cymbidium and Dendrobium, are structurally strong and visually dramatic, and they are a good choice for a professional or celebratory occasion. Avoid requesting very open peonies if you are ordering for a summer delivery to a city with high temperatures, because they wilt faster than expected once cut. Tell us the occasion and the recipient's taste rather than a specific variety, and we will build the bouquet accordingly.

Russian Flower-Giving Customs You Should Know Before You Order

If you have not sent flowers inside Russia before, a few customs are worth knowing so your order lands correctly. The most important rule is the odd-number rule: bouquets in Russia are always made with an odd number of stems — one, three, five, seven, eleven, and so on. Even numbers of flowers are associated exclusively with funerals and are never given as a gift in any other context. We follow this automatically on every order, but if you request a specific stem count, make sure it is odd. Yellow flowers carry a complicated reputation in Russian popular culture — many older recipients associate yellow roses or yellow tulips with separation or bad luck, though younger people in large cities are largely indifferent to this. If the recipient is over fifty or you are unsure of their sensibilities, we recommend mixing yellow with white or pink rather than sending a purely yellow bouquet. Wrapping matters too: Russian bouquets are typically presented in a generous wrap of craft paper or transparent film, tied with ribbon. A bouquet handed over without wrapping looks unfinished to a Russian eye. We wrap every bouquet as standard. It is also common in Russia to include a small card with a handwritten-style message, and we print whatever text you provide in the order notes. Write the message in Russian if you can — recipients genuinely appreciate it — but we accept messages in English and Hebrew as well.

How to Place the Order, What to Double-Check and How We Confirm Delivery

The ordering process from Israel is identical to ordering from anywhere else in the world: you go to the website, choose a bouquet or describe what you want in the comments field, enter the delivery address and recipient phone number, select a delivery time in Moscow Time, and pay by card. The step most people skip is the comments field, and it is actually the most useful part of the form. Write the occasion, any colour preferences, any flowers the recipient dislikes, and any access information for the building — door codes, gate codes, whether the building has a concierge who must be called first. Russian residential buildings, particularly Soviet-era apartment blocks, often have a domofon, which is an intercom system at the street door. If the courier cannot reach the recipient by phone and does not have the door code, they will wait outside. Providing the code in the comments prevents this entirely. After you place the order, you receive an email confirmation with the order number. Our operators review every international order manually and will contact you by WhatsApp or email if anything in the address or timing is unclear — usually within thirty minutes of the order being placed. We send a delivery confirmation once the bouquet has been handed over, including the time of delivery. If you want a photo of the delivered bouquet, mention it in the comments and the courier will take one. This is a common request from senders abroad and we are happy to do it.

Sending flowers to Russia from Israel is genuinely straightforward once you have the three core things right: the Moscow Time zone, a correctly formatted Russian address with a working local phone number, and a card that your Israeli bank will not block on a cross-border transaction. Everything else — the variety, the wrapping, the odd stem count, the message card — is our job, and it is the job we do several hundred times a week. The distance between Tel Aviv and Saint Petersburg is about three thousand kilometres, but the bouquet your mother or friend receives will have been cut and assembled that same morning, a few streets from where it is delivered. Доставим букет по России за 1–2 часа.