Dried flowers for farewell tributes
by Lisa Holt, Gate House Florals
I’d like to give a shout out to dried flowers as a beautiful, graceful and sustainable option for a floral farewell tribute. Dried flowers are not the faded, brown and dusty flowers of the past. They are not ‘dead flowers’ but uniquely special. Flowers cut from a summer garden and dried naturally in a way that captures that moment in time, that garden; the colour, the petals, holding it in dried form. Imagine having flowers much loved like dahlias, delphiniums, roses and larkspur preserved as a memory of a person and a place. They are everlastings; colourful, characterful, providing a timeless delicate beauty in a long lasting arrangement.
For funerals, dried flowers can be tied in a bouquet, a posy, a wreath, a bespoke arrangement or a button hole to wear at a funeral service. Recently I made a posy to adorn a special handbag. Whereas fresh flowers would have stained and watermarked the bag, dried English garden flowers offered the perfect alternative, dressing the a bag beautifully. It was a very personal to way display such a treasured possession on the day of the funeral service - bringing to mind memories of when the handbag had been used on many happy occasions. The dried flowers and handbag have since been kept in pride of place, something that just wouldn’t have been possible if I’d used fresh flowers.
If you would like a keepsake from the funeral, dried flowers are just perfect. Alternatively, you could ask your florist to include flowers in your arrangements which are well suited to drying. You could then simply remove them afterwards. There are lots of flowers which are easy to dry by hanging them upside down in a warm (and preferably dark) place. Once dried, the flowers will need to be kept in a damp-free environment and you’ll then be able to treasure them either in a vase or in a creative display of your own making.
Lisa runs Gate House Florals in Bridgnorth, Shropshire and loves making sustainable arrangements with both fresh and dried flowers.