While funeral flowers traditionally go on a grave after a burial, you don’t necessarily have a fixed place to put arrangements after a cremation. If you aren’t sure what to do with family casket flowers, then the following ideas might help.
1. Leave the flowers on the coffin
People order funeral wreaths, arrangements and bouquets as a sign of love and respect. These displays, and the messages that go with them, give people the chance to say their goodbyes for the last time.
Sometimes, it just feels right to leave funeral flowers on the casket after the service is done. The flowers travel with the deceased on their final journey. You can take comfort in the fact that your expression of love and respect stayed with the person you’ve lost until the end.
2. Place the flowers in the crematorium garden
If you prefer to put funeral flowers out on display after a service, then the crematorium usually has an area for this. For example, the facility might reserve part of a memorial garden for flower displays on the day of funerals.
So, before the service starts, your funeral director might lay out general flowers. They add casket arrangements at the end of the service if you don’t want them to stay on the coffin.
You and other guests can then gather together after the service to look at the flowers and to read the messages people have written. You get some comfort and closure from seeing how much people cared for your loved one.
3. Give the flowers away
If you prefer not to leave funeral flowers at the crematorium, then you can arrange to give them away after the service. Fresh flowers, wreaths and arrangements still have some life in them, and you’ll get some joy if someone else can appreciate them for a while.
For example, some hospitals and care homes accept donated flowers. They brighten up their facilities and give pleasure to staff, patients and residents.
This is a really lovely touch if your loved one was in hospital or a home when they died. Staff and other residents might not have been able to make the funeral. They will appreciate a final link with the deceased at this time.
You can also make more personal donations. For example, you might enjoy taking an arrangement home. Or other funeral guests might appreciate the gift of a few flowers. You can all enjoy the flowers for a few days and remember the person you have lost.
4. Repurpose the flowers
Fresh funeral arrangements don’t last for long, so you might prefer to preserve some flowers. You can then repurpose them as more permanent memorial pieces.
For example, you could press a single bloom and keep it in one of your loved one’s favourite books or in a photo album. Individual flowers also make lovely bookmarks.
You can also create dried flower wreaths or arrange selected blooms in a photo frame. You can have them added to pieces of jewellery like necklaces, rings or bracelets.
If you want other people to share these memories, then consider gifting pressed or dried flowers. For example, you could dry individual blooms from your mother’s casket flowers and give one to each of your daughters to tuck into their bridal bouquets when they get married. They’ll feel like their grandmother is with them.
Or you can turn larger arrangements into pot pourri. Pot pourri can also be added to homemade candles that you can light on key anniversaries to remember the person you lost.