Sending Flowers from Spain to the UK: What You Need to Know

Yes, you can send flowers from Spain to the UK without leaving home: choose a bouquet online, enter the British address and your card text, and pay on the site. With us the order goes the same way as any other: we deliver to 157 cities in the United Kingdom, including London, Manchester, Bath, Basingstoke and Aylesbury, and the price you see already includes delivery.

The harder part is not the logistics but the choice. A bouquet that would delight someone in Valencia can land a little differently in a terraced house in Manchester in November. Below we go through how to order, which flowers suit British homes and occasions, how to time the delivery and what to write on the card, so the flowers arrive as the gesture you meant.

How to order flowers from Spain to the UK, step by step

Start on our Flower delivery to United Kingdom page. Pick the city first, because the selection is shown for that city, then choose the bouquet. You fill in the recipient's name, full address with postcode and a phone number, and type the text for the card. Payment is online: bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay.

Prices are shown in rubles and are already converted, with delivery included, so there is no separate courier fee to add for the UK. The 500 RUB city delivery and the express time windows you may see elsewhere on the site apply to Russian cities, not to orders abroad.

Before you pay, double-check two things that most often cause trouble: the postcode and the recipient's phone number with the +44 code. British addresses frequently include a flat number or a house name, and a courier who cannot find the door or reach the recipient loses time while the flowers wait. If something about the address is unusual, a gated block or a hospital ward, message our manager on WhatsApp and agree the details before the order goes out.

Spanish habits that read differently in Britain

Flower language is not universal, and senders from Spain sometimes carry assumptions that do not translate. In Spain chrysanthemums are strongly linked with cemeteries and All Saints' Day, so many Spaniards avoid them as a gift. In the UK nobody will blink: chrysanthemums are an ordinary, cheerful autumn flower, and their long vase life makes them a sensible choice for colder months.

The opposite also happens. Red carnations feel festive and almost national in Spain, while some British recipients see carnations as old-fashioned or as the flower in a wedding buttonhole. Mixed with roses or spray roses they look fresh; on their own they can look like a petrol-station bunch to a picky eye.

Lilies are the main flower to think twice about. They are beautiful and fragrant, but they are highly toxic to cats, and a large share of British households keep one. If you are not sure whether the recipient has a cat, choose roses, tulips, alstroemeria or a mixed bouquet without lilies. For a sickroom or a small flat, also skip very strongly scented stems.

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

Matching the bouquet to British occasions

Mother's Day is the classic trap for anyone living in Spain. The Spanish Día de la Madre falls on the first Sunday of May, but in the UK Mothering Sunday is in March, three weeks before Easter Sunday, so the date moves every year. Check the calendar early: if you order flowers for May, a British mum will already have had hers from everyone else in March.

For birthdays and thank-you gestures, British taste leans towards natural, slightly loose bouquets in soft colours: peach and cream roses, white with greenery, pastel mixes. Very tall, tightly wrapped arrangements with lots of decoration feel more formal. For a new baby, white and soft yellow are safe; for a romantic gesture, red roses mean exactly what they mean in Spain.

Sympathy flowers are usually sent to the family home rather than to the funeral itself, unless the family has asked otherwise. White and cream flowers with greenery are the respectful default, and a short, simple card works better than a long one.

Timing: when to order and what to tell the recipient

Mainland Spain is one hour ahead of the UK for the whole year (the Canary Islands share UK time), so an order you place at nine in the morning in Madrid is eight o'clock in London. When you agree a delivery time, think in the recipient's local time, especially for birthdays where you want flowers to arrive before they leave for work.

For an important date, order a few days in advance rather than on the morning itself. This gives time to confirm the address, sort out any questions about the bouquet and avoid the rush before Valentine's Day, Mothering Sunday and Christmas. If the day really matters, agree the timing with the manager when you order.

Decide whether you want a surprise. Delivery is anonymous by default: the courier does not name the sender, and only your card says who the flowers are from. If you would rather the recipient knew to expect a delivery, let them know the day, but not what is coming.

Keeping the flowers fresh in a British home

British homes in autumn and winter are often warmer than people expect, with radiators under every window. Heat is the fastest way to shorten a bouquet's life. If you know the recipient, add a line to the card or send a message: keep the vase away from radiators, sunny windowsills and the fruit bowl, since ripening fruit releases ethylene, which ages flowers faster.

The basics are the same everywhere: trim stems at an angle by one or two centimetres with a sharp knife, remove leaves that would sit below the water line, use a clean vase and change the water every second day. Roses and tulips react well to this routine and can last a week or more; tulips keep growing in the vase, so a tall vessel helps them stand upright.

Hard UK tap water in places like London is not a problem for cut flowers, but cold water straight from the tap can shock delicate stems. Room-temperature water is the better choice.

If the bouquet arrives on a cold day, let it rest in the room for half an hour before unwrapping, then recut the stems and put it in water. Sudden warmth after a chilly doorstep is hard on roses, and this small pause noticeably helps the heads open evenly instead of drooping on the second day.

Writing the card when you are far away

The card is free and often matters more than the flowers. Keep it short and personal: two or three sentences in the language the recipient reads most comfortably. If you write in Spanish to a British friend, add a line in English so the meaning is clear to anyone else in the house.

Sign with the name the recipient actually knows you by, especially if you are sending from Spain to an older relative or a colleague who may not expect a delivery from abroad. A line such as "Thinking of you from Málaga" both explains the delivery and makes it warmer.

If you have family in other countries as well, the same approach works: our Flower delivery abroad page lists all 53 countries and more than 1640 cities, and the ordering process is identical everywhere. We deliver bouquets across Russia in 1–2 hours.