Not only do funeral flowers help personalize a funeral service, they also bring a deeper meaning into remembering a loved one. Flowers can represent love, sadness, strength, and many other powerful emotions.

Ultimately, families want the flowers they choose to reflect their loved one and honor their memory. So, let’s go over how to help families choose the perfect funeral flowers to pay tribute to their loved one.

Meaning Behind Funeral Flowers

Both flower colors and types have different meanings that play a factor in choosing funeral flowers. When just talking about flower color, these are what the colors represent:

• Red: Strength, respect, devotion, and love
• Orange: Enthusiasm, joy, and warmth
• Yellow: Friendship, warmth, and hope
• Green: Nature, wellness, and renewal
• Blue: Sadness, sympathy, and peace
• Purple: Respect, sorrow, sympathy, and admiration
• Pink: Grace, compassion, and innocence
• White: Elegance, reverence, purity, and eternal love

When it comes to flower types, these are what some of the most common funeral flowers represent:

• Daises: Peace and hope
• Lavender: Grace, purity, and devotion
• Orchids: Hope, peace, courage, and love
• Snapdragons: Graciousness and strength
• Tulips: Love, peace, and hope

For carnations and roses, the meaning depends on the specific flower color:

• Red Carnations: Admiration and love
• Pink Carnations: Remembrance
• White Carnations: Innocence and love
• All Carnations: Sympathy and Grief
• Red Roses: Love, respect, and courage
• Pink Roses: Grace, love, and appreciation
• White Roses: Reverence, innocence, peace, and hope
• Dark Crimson Roses: Grief and sorrow

Flowers and Funeral Themes

The flowers can help convey an overall funeral theme. A few funeral theme ideas are a loved one’s profession, hobby, favorite color, or favorite season. For more funeral theme inspiration, check out our Pinterest boards for examples with Tribute Store floral arrangements!

You also can incorporate small mementos into the floral arrangements to make them even more personal. For example, if someone was an avid golfer, you can add golf balls or tees into the arrangement. You can even place flowers in their old golf bag. If you have a standing floral spray, you can lean their golf clubs by it. When it comes to personalization, the opportunities are endless! Don’t be afraid to get creative with it.

Flower Preservation Tips and Mementos

Flower types have different lifespans after being cut. For the flowers mentioned above, these are their lifespans after being cut:

• Tulips: Three to seven days
• Daisies: Four to seven days
• Snapdragons: Five to eight days
• Roses: Four to 12 days
• Lavender: Up to 10 days
• Orchids: One to two weeks
• Carnations: Up to two weeks

For tips on caring for cut flowers, check out this flower preservation article!

There are several mementos that families can make by drying their flowers. A few ways to dry flowers are by leaving them in a vase, hanging them upside down, pressing them in a book, microwaving them, or placing them in a container of silica gel. Depending on the flower type and desired memento, some methods may work better than others.

For mementos, a few ideas are a dried flower shadowbox, framed-pressed flowers, and dried flower coasters. Families also may want to donate flowers after the funeral to a flower donation program, like Random Acts of Flowers. Or, your funeral home’s staff can deliver them to local nursing homes and hospitals.

Questions to Ask Families

When helping families choose the perfect funeral flowers, these are some questions you can ask them:

• Did your loved one have any preplanned wishes for their funeral flowers?
• Do you have a funeral theme or color scheme in mind?
• What was your loved one’s favorite color?
• What was your loved one’s favorite flower?
• Do you have any flower types in mind?
• Would the meaning behind certain flower types and colors impact your decision?
• Do you want to keep the flowers after the funeral?
• If you’re keeping them, do you want to turn them into a memento?
• Do you want to donate the flowers after the funeral?

You also can share this helpful infographic with families to make the decision a little easier.