How to Send Roses Internationally Without the Guesswork

To send roses internationally, you order a bouquet online for delivery in the recipient's own city, write the card text and pay on the site; you never post fresh roses across a border yourself. With Turboflora you can do this for recipients in Russia and in 54 other countries, more than 1650 cities, paying online in rubles with delivery already included in the price for orders abroad.

The ordering part takes ten minutes. What decides whether the roses land well is everything around it: the right colour and number of stems for the recipient's culture, a delivery time that suits their time zone, a phone number the courier can actually reach, and a few minutes of care once the bouquet is in water. Below is how I would walk a friend through it, step by step.

Why you order delivery, not shipping

Cut roses are thirsty and fragile. A rose out of water for a day loses firmness in the neck, the outer petals bruise in transit, and customs rules in many countries treat fresh plant material strictly. That is why nobody sensible packs roses into a parcel and sends them overseas. Instead, you place an order for a bouquet to be delivered at the recipient's address, and the flowers travel only the short distance to their door.

For you as the sender, this means the process looks like any online purchase: pick the bouquet, enter the address, add a message, pay. The details that matter are the recipient's full address with entrance, floor and flat number where relevant, and a phone number in international format so the courier can reach them.

It also means you should judge a bouquet by what is in it rather than by the photo alone. Read the description for the number of stems and their length, and if something is unclear, ask before you pay rather than after.

Sending roses to Russia from abroad

Russia is where most of our international senders order to, and the process is set up for people who are not in the country. You choose a bouquet in the Bouquets catalogue, enter the address and card text, and pay online by bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay. City delivery costs 500 RUB; for remote districts and suburbs the operator confirms the price when confirming the order.

Timing is flexible. In large cities we can deliver express, within 1-2 hours after the order is confirmed, or at an exact time with a margin of plus or minus 30 minutes. You can also pick a window - 09-12, 12-15, 15-18 or 18-21 - or pre-order 1-30 days ahead, which is the calmest option for birthdays and anniversaries you know about in advance.

Delivery is anonymous by default: the courier does not name the sender, so if you want the recipient to know the roses are from you, sign the card. The card with your text is free. If you want help choosing, agreeing the time or wording the card, write to a manager on WhatsApp; they can also send you a photo of the bouquet before it goes out.

Bouquets we can deliver

Bouquet of 1 yellow sunflowers

$13

Bouquet of 3 white roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Bouquet of 3 red roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Bouquet of 3 pink roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Sending roses to other countries

Beyond Russia, we deliver flowers to 54 countries and more than 1650 cities, including the USA, the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Spain, Egypt, Germany and Canada. The full list of countries and cities is on the page Flower delivery abroad. That page is in Russian, but country names are easy to spot, and your browser's translate function handles the rest.

An order abroad is placed exactly the way it is for Russia: open the country or city page, choose a bouquet, enter the address and the card text, and pay online in rubles. The price shown is already converted to rubles and already includes delivery, so there is no separate fee to add at checkout. The 500 RUB fee and the express and time-window options described above apply to Russian cities, so for other countries plan a little ahead rather than counting on a same-hour delivery.

Write the address in the format the recipient would use themselves, in Latin letters, with the postcode. A building name or a note such as 'ring the second bell' saves the courier a phone call and saves the recipient a trip downstairs.

Colour and stem count: what roses say in different cultures

Red still means romantic love almost everywhere, which makes it the safe choice for a partner and a slightly awkward one for a colleague or a mother-in-law. Pink reads as tenderness and gratitude, white as respect and new beginnings, and cream or peach as warmth without romance. Yellow is cheerful in most of Europe and North America, but older people in Russia may still link it with separation, so for a Russian grandmother I would choose pink or cream instead.

Numbers matter more than many senders expect. In Russia, a gift bouquet always has an odd number of stems; even numbers are kept for funerals and memorials. Once you go above roughly fifteen stems the rule relaxes, and big bouquets of 25, 51 or 101 roses are a gesture in themselves. Our guide How Many Roses to Send in Russia goes through the common counts and what each one signals.

Elsewhere the rules differ. In Germany and several neighbouring countries an odd number is also traditional and thirteen is avoided, while in much of Western Europe and North America a dozen roses is the classic romantic gift. If you are unsure what the recipient's family expects, a mixed bouquet with roses as the main flower is a gentle way to avoid any reading at all.

Timing across time zones

The most common mistake with international orders is thinking in your own time zone. If you are in New York and the recipient is in Moscow, a delivery at 'lunchtime' on your screen is evening for them. Always choose the time by the recipient's local clock, and think about where they will actually be: the office address on a weekday, home on a weekend.

For a birthday or anniversary, order a few days ahead instead of on the day. In Russia you can pre-order 1-30 days in advance and pick a window, which takes the stress out of a date you already know. For a surprise, consider whether the recipient might be travelling; a quick check with a relative is worth more than any express option.

For Russian deliveries, the courier calls the recipient about 15 minutes before arrival. If nobody is there, we agree a second delivery the same day or hand the flowers to a neighbour or concierge, but only with your consent. So give a phone number the recipient really answers, and if the roses are a secret, tell us in the order comment so the call does not spoil it.

Helping the roses last once they arrive

You cannot trim the stems from abroad, but you can send the recipient three lines of advice with the bouquet or in a message afterwards. Cut 2-3 cm off each stem at an angle with a sharp knife, put the roses into a clean vase with cool water, and strip any leaves that would sit below the water line. Change the water every day or two and trim a little again each time.

Keep the vase away from radiators, direct sun and the fruit bowl; ripening fruit releases ethylene, which makes petals drop faster. With that basic care, good garden-style and standard roses usually stay attractive for about a week, sometimes longer.

If a rose arrives with a drooping head, it is usually an air bubble blocking the stem rather than a dead flower. A fresh cut under water followed by an hour or two in deep water often brings it back; the method is described in Roses Arrived With Bent Necks?. We deliver bouquets across Russia in 1–2 hours.