Flowers to Moscow: A Florist's Guide to Sending a Bouquet

To send flowers to Moscow, choose a bouquet in our online catalogue, enter the recipient's Moscow address and phone number, pick a delivery time and pay by bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay. City delivery costs 500 RUB, and an express order usually arrives within 1-2 hours after we confirm it. You can do all of this from any country, in English, without anyone in Moscow having to lift a finger.

Below we walk through the whole process the way we would explain it to a friend calling from London, Berlin or Toronto: how to time the delivery across time zones, which flowers travel well through a Moscow winter, what to write on the card, and how to avoid the few small mistakes that make a delivery harder than it needs to be.

How ordering flowers to Moscow works, step by step

Start in the Bouquets catalogue and pick a bouquet by occasion, colour or size. At checkout you give us three things that matter most: the recipient's full address (street, building, entrance, floor and flat number), their phone number, and your preferred delivery time. Moscow apartment blocks often have coded entrances and several buildings sharing one street number, so the more detail you add, the faster the courier finds the right door.

Next, choose how fast you need it. Express delivery in Moscow takes 1-2 hours from the moment the order is confirmed. If you want something more precise, pick an exact time with a window of plus or minus 30 minutes, or one of the slots: 09-12, 12-15, 15-18 or 18-21. You can also place the order 1 to 30 days in advance, which is the calmest option for birthdays and anniversaries.

Payment happens online on the site by bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay. Standard city delivery costs 500 RUB; for remote districts and the suburbs around Moscow, the operator confirms the price when confirming your order, so you know the final amount before anything is sent. Full details live on the Delivery and payment page.

Timing across time zones: when the bouquet should arrive

Moscow runs on UTC+3 all year round, with no daylight saving changes. That means the gap with Western Europe shifts during the year: in winter Moscow is two hours ahead of Berlin and three ahead of London, in summer one and two hours respectively. When you choose a delivery slot, always think in Moscow time, not your own. A slot of 09-12 booked from New York means very early morning for you, but a perfectly normal morning for your mother.

For birthdays we usually suggest the first half of the day. The recipient is often at home in the morning, the flowers set the tone for the whole day, and there is time left to enjoy them before evening plans. For working recipients, 18-21 is the most reliable slot: people are back home and the courier is not ringing an empty flat.

Around 8 March and 14 February, Moscow orders spike sharply. If you are sending for International Women's Day in particular, order a few days ahead and pick a time window rather than express. A pre-order of 1-30 days is made exactly for these dates, and it saves you from refreshing your phone at midnight in another time zone.

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

Choosing flowers that suit Moscow and the occasion

Russian flower etiquette has a few rules that surprise people from abroad. For a happy occasion, a hand-tied bouquet traditionally has an odd number of stems: 5, 7, 11 roses, never 6 or 10. Even numbers are reserved for funerals and memorials. Once a bouquet passes about fifteen stems the rule matters less, but if your recipient is from an older generation, it is kinder to stick to odd numbers anyway.

Yellow flowers carried an old association with separation, and some people still notice it. Bright yellow tulips in spring or sunflowers in late summer are perfectly cheerful today, but for a romantic gesture most people choose red or soft pink. For a mother or grandmother, warm cream, peach and pastel mixes with roses, chrysanthemums or alstroemeria feel caring rather than formal. For a colleague or a teacher, a compact, neat bouquet reads better than an enormous one.

Season matters too. Moscow winters bring long frosts, and a bouquet carried from the courier's car to the entrance should not be delicate. Roses, chrysanthemums, carnations and eustoma handle a short walk in the cold far better than hydrangeas or anything with very thin petals. In spring, tulips are almost a national symbol of 8 March; in summer, peonies are the bouquet everyone hopes to receive.

What to write on the card

A card with your text is free, so use it. Write in Russian if your recipient reads Russian more comfortably; a short message in their language feels warmer than a long one in yours. If you do not write Russian, a simple English line is fine for most younger recipients, and you can always mention that you will call later.

Keep it to two or three lines and always sign it, even if you think it is obvious who sent the flowers. Delivery is anonymous by default: the courier does not name the sender. That is lovely for a secret admirer, but confusing for a grandmother who receives a bouquet from a grandson she has not heard from in a month. If you want to stay anonymous, just leave the card unsigned and tell us so.

A practical tip from experience: if the flowers are for someone elderly, mention your name and the reason in the very first words, for example 'From Anna in Hamburg, happy birthday, Mum'. Older recipients are sometimes wary of unexpected couriers, and a clear card settles the question at once.

On the day: what the courier does and how to avoid a missed delivery

About 15 minutes before arrival, the courier calls the recipient. This is the single most important reason to give us a correct, active phone number. A landline that nobody answers or an old SIM card is the most common reason a delivery stalls, much more common than traffic.

If the recipient is not home, nothing is lost. We agree a second delivery the same day, or, with your consent, hand the flowers to a neighbour or the building's concierge. If you know your recipient might be out, tell us in advance who can accept the bouquet; that saves a phone call while the flowers wait.

If you want to keep the surprise, there is a small balance to find: we need the recipient's number for the call, but the call itself does not have to spoil anything. The courier simply checks that someone is home. You can agree the details, the exact time and the card text with a manager on WhatsApp, and ask for a photo of the bouquet before it leaves, so you see exactly what your family will receive.

Helping the bouquet last once it arrives

A well-made bouquet should stay fresh for a week or longer, and much of that depends on the first hour. If you are sending flowers to someone who rarely buys them, it is worth a quick message: trim the stems at an angle by a centimetre or two, use a clean vase with cool water, and remove any leaves that would sit below the waterline.

In a Moscow flat in winter, the main enemy is dry heat. Central heating radiators run hot from October to April, and a vase standing on the windowsill above one will wilt days earlier than the same bouquet on a table across the room. Ask your recipient to keep it away from radiators, direct sun and the fruit bowl, since ripening fruit releases ethylene that speeds up ageing.

Changing the water every one to two days and re-trimming the stems each time is the simplest habit that adds days of life. If you are planning more deliveries, our guide on sending flowers to Moscow from abroad covers the logistics in more depth.