Sending Flowers Overseas: A Florist's Practical Guide

To send flowers overseas, you order a bouquet online for the recipient's country and city, enter their address and your card message, and pay in one go - the flowers are made up and delivered in that country, not flown in from yours. With Turboflora you can do this for Russia and for 53 other countries, more than 1630 cities in total, from the USA and the United Kingdom to Poland, France, Spain, Egypt, Germany and Canada.

The ordering part takes a few minutes. What makes the difference between a bouquet that lands well and one that feels slightly off is everything around it: picking flowers whose meaning works in the recipient's culture, timing the delivery for their day rather than yours, writing a card that reads naturally, and getting the address details right. Below is how a florist thinks about each of those steps.

How ordering flowers overseas works with us

An order abroad is placed exactly like an order inside Russia. You open the page of the country or city, choose a bouquet, fill in the recipient's address and the text for the card, and pay online. The price you see is already converted into rubles and already includes delivery, so there is no separate shipping line to work out and no surprise at the end. The full list of countries and cities is on our Flower delivery abroad page - it is in Russian, but country names are easy to spot, and you can always ask us to point you to the right one.

For orders within Russia the details are a little different: delivery in the city costs 500 RUB, and for remote districts and suburbs the operator confirms the price when confirming the order. In large Russian cities you can choose express delivery 1-2 hours after the order is confirmed, an exact time (plus or minus 30 minutes), a time window of 09-12, 12-15, 15-18 or 18-21, or a pre-order 1-30 days ahead. These express and time-window conditions apply to Russian cities.

Payment is made online on the site: bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay. If anything is unclear - which bouquet suits the occasion, how to write a foreign address, what to put on the card - message a manager on WhatsApp and agree the details before you pay.

Choosing flowers that mean the right thing abroad

Flowers carry different messages in different countries, and a bouquet that is perfectly normal at home can read strangely elsewhere. Chrysanthemums are a good example: in the USA they are a cheerful autumn flower, while in France, Belgium, Italy and much of Southern Europe they are strongly linked to cemeteries and All Saints' Day. In Japan and China white flowers in general lean towards mourning. If you are unsure, roses, tulips, peonies, ranunculus and mixed seasonal bouquets in warm colours are the safest choices almost everywhere.

Numbers matter too. In Russia, Ukraine, Poland and other Eastern European countries a gift bouquet traditionally has an odd number of stems, while even numbers are reserved for funerals - a rule people there take seriously, though it only really applies to bouquets of up to about fifteen stems. In Japan four is avoided because it sounds like the word for death. Large designer bouquets and mixed arrangements sidestep the question entirely, which is one reason they are so popular for international orders.

Colour is the third layer. Yellow flowers are a sunny gift in Britain and the US but are sometimes read as a sign of separation in Russia, especially among older people. Red roses everywhere say romance, so for a colleague, a mother-in-law or a friend you may prefer soft pinks, peach or white-and-green combinations. When the occasion is sensitive, describe it to the florist and let them suggest a palette.

Bouquets we can deliver

Bouquet of 1 yellow sunflowers

$13

Bouquet of 3 white French roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Bouquet of 3 red French roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Bouquet of 3 pink roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Timing: think in the recipient's time zone

The most common mistake with flowers overseas is planning around your own calendar. If you live in New York and your mother lives in Moscow, she is seven or eight hours ahead of you; by the time you wake up on her birthday, half her day has gone. Decide what moment you want the bouquet to arrive in her day - before she leaves for work, at lunch, in the evening when the family gathers - and choose the delivery time accordingly.

Holidays also shift between countries. Mother's Day is the second Sunday of May in the USA and Canada, the fourth Sunday of Lent in the UK, and a different date again in France, Spain and Egypt. Russia's biggest flower day is 8 March, International Women's Day, when demand rises sharply in every city. For dates like these, a pre-order is the calm option: in Russia you can book 1-30 days ahead and stop worrying.

Remember weekends and working hours as well. A bouquet delivered to an office on a Saturday will meet a locked door, and a bouquet to a hospital may not be allowed on the ward at all. If you do not know the recipient's schedule, a home address in the late afternoon or early evening is usually the safest bet.

The card message: short, warm and in the right language

A card with your text is included free of charge, and it is the part the recipient keeps longest. Two or three sentences are enough. Say who the flowers are from (delivery is anonymous by default, so if you want to be recognised, sign the card), why you are sending them and one personal line - a shared memory, a nickname, a plan to visit.

Write in the recipient's language if you can, even imperfectly; a short message in their own words feels far more personal than a polished one in yours. If you want the card in Russian but do not speak it, write your message in English to a manager on WhatsApp and agree the wording before the order goes through. Avoid idioms that do not translate, and leave out jokes that depend on tone of voice.

If you prefer to stay anonymous - a secret admirer, a surprise from a group, condolences you would rather keep low-key - simply leave the card unsigned. The courier does not name the sender.

Getting the address and recipient details right

Most delivery problems come from incomplete addresses, not from the flowers. For any country, give the full street address, the building and flat or apartment number, the entrance or block if there is one, the door code or intercom name, and the floor. In Russian apartment blocks the entrance number (podyezd) and door code are often what decides whether the courier gets in on the first try.

Always add the recipient's phone number. Our courier calls the recipient about 15 minutes before arrival, which gives them time to come to the door or tell the courier which way to go. If the recipient is not at home, we agree a second delivery the same day or, with the sender's consent, leave the flowers with a neighbour or concierge.

If you want the surprise to stay a surprise, you can mention it in the order comment, but keep in mind that the phone call is what makes delivery reliable. A quick word to a flatmate or partner - 'you will get a call, please answer' - often solves both problems at once.

Helping the bouquet last after it arrives

A bouquet that is properly looked after on the first evening will usually stay fresh for a week or more. If you are sending flowers overseas to someone who has never had cut flowers delivered, it is worth adding a care line to your card or a message: trim the stems at an angle by one or two centimetres, put them in a clean vase with cool water, and keep them away from radiators, direct sun and fruit bowls (ripening fruit gives off ethylene, which ages flowers).

Change the water every day or two and trim the stems again each time. Remove any leaves that sit below the waterline, since they rot and cloud the water. Roses benefit from removing the outer guard petals as they open; tulips keep growing in the vase and bend towards the light, so turning the vase helps them stay upright. Want to see how far your budget goes? Our article How Much Does It Cost to Send Flowers Overseas? walks through what changes the final price, and the Bouquets catalogue shows what is available right now. We deliver bouquets across Russia in 1–2 hours.