How to Make Your Own Funeral Flower Arrangements

Funeral floral arrangements are not difficult to make (see reference 1), and making your own will not only save money but also add a personal touch to your floral offering. Funeral arrangements can include large wrapped green or flowering plants, large floral arrangements, and specialty designs like crosses mounted on easels (see reference 2). A classically simple but showy floral arrangement is described here.

Small, sharp knife

Scissors

1 block floral foam (be sure to get wettable foam, not Styrofoam, for silk flowers)

1 sturdy, inexpensive vase/container (about the size of a gallon milk jug)

Green vase tape

7 branches of tall greenery (at least 24 inches)

Shorter greenery for filler (such as fern, boxwood or podocarpus)

6 carnations, roses or large mums

1 bunch daisy mums or pompom chrysanthemums

1 bunch filler flowers (flowers with tiny blooms in clusters, like baby's breath)

5, 6 inch wooden floral picks (with wire on one end)

3 yards of wide ribbon (at least 1.5 inches wide)

1 sympathy/identification card

If you choose to use greenery from your yard, cut it the night before you need it and put cut ends in water to hydrate. Alternatively, if you choose to purchase greenery from a flower shop, it will already be hydrated.

Soak floral foam until saturated. Place foam in container and secure with vase tape across top of container. Cut and wedge extra pieces of foam on sides of foam block if necessary for stability.

Cut greenery to appropriate length and insert securely into floral foam. The greenery should form a triangle as illustrated and be about 2.5 times the height of the container. Most funeral arrangements are one-sided; that is, they are flat in the back.

Cut the ends of your larger flowers at an angle and insert into floral foam as illustrated.

Cut the ends of your pompoms or daisies and insert in the spaces around your larger flowers. Repeat this process with your filler flowers, trying to balance the spaces in your arrangement by placing the fillers evenly.

Gather ribbon into single or double loops, secure with wire on end of your wooden floral picks, and tuck into your arrangement near the bottom to create a focal point. Make tails for your loop by securing flat ribbon to your wooden floral pick and arrange the tails hanging down in front of your vase.

Fill out identification card, which can be obtained from a flower shop or hobby store. Secure the card to the arrangement so the funeral directors know where the arrangement is supposed to go and the family knows who sent the arrangement.

Call the funeral home ahead of time to find out where and when you should deliver your arrangement.