Happy Monday Folks and welcome to this week's edition of Monday Musings. Let's get to it!
For me, flowers are mostly about creating and sharing joy. Used to evoke positive emotions and memories and to mark special events and milestones.
They can also be used to commemorate a loved one and to help remind us of those positive memories.
Growing up, I went to 6 funerals before attending my first wedding, so you could say I was well versed in attending. Regardless of how many I have attended, visitations and funerals are never easy and are very emotional.
I don't think I've attended one without crying, even if I didn't know the deceased person well. I would say I'm an empath - highly sensitive to the feelings of others and I often take on the emotions of others, myself. It used to be difficult for me to get out of, but I am getting better and learning to use it as a special power. My empathy has turned out to be especially helpful when creating flowers for funerals and celebrations of life.
To start 2024, we experienced death within our family and of loved ones of our friends, so I was commissioned to make multiple flower arrangements. And I would always think about the deceased person and who they were.
And if I didn't know them, I would wonder and ask questions to myself like:
What were their hobbies and what were they interested in?
How did they spend their life?
Did they like to travel?
Did they like flowers?
Did they have any pets?
So many questions, and the flowers help to guide me as I painstakingly place each stem to create a beautiful arrangement that helps commemorate who they were. Always trying to incorporate a specific colour or flower(s) that they loved or that others remember them by. I aim to make sympathy flowers more accessible and sustainable and to give people more thoughtful options.
I find the traditional sympathy flower industry to be wasteful and over the top. Most traditional arrangements are not sustainable as the flowers used often come from far away and are heavily sprayed for the journey. They are then arranged in floral foam, which is not bio-degradable and is loaded with micro-plastics. This helps the flowers stay hydrated, but makes it unsafe or not possible to bury flowers with the deceased, (as some people like to do) or even leave the flowers at the cemetery.
Now, having said all of this, I recognize that by not using floral foam or not having a water source (like a floral sheath for the casket), will shorten the life of the fresh flowers. So when I'm choosing flowers to use, I always try and choose the most local and also ones that perform well out of water and dry well. During the season and warmer months, it is very easy to find flowers that fit the bill, but in the off season it can be a bit more challenging. I'm currently liking to use flowers and greens like lisianthus, ranunculus, iris, cedar, limonium, freesia and spray roses.
I want to help make a small change in the traditional funeral flowers world and to offer alternatives for folks who want something different and more sustainable. Now you can find a small collection of sympathy flowers available for order, on our website.
Thank you for being here and for including us in your meaningful life events <3
