Flowers for a Mausoleum Crypt or Columbarium Niche: What Fits and What Is Allowed

A growing share of Americans are not buried in the ground at all. Cremated remains go into a columbarium niche; caskets go into a mausoleum crypt. Both are walls rather than lawns, and flowers for them work differently: there is no grass, no ground vase, and often a rule book written by the building's manager rather than the cemetery's grounds crew.

Mausoleum, crypt and niche: the difference

A mausoleum is a building, or the wall of a building, that holds the dead above ground. A crypt is one space in it, sized for a casket and sealed with a stone front that carries the name. A columbarium is a wall or room of smaller spaces, called niches, that hold urns of cremated remains. Many cemeteries have both, sometimes under one roof.

The fixtures

• Crypt vase. Most mausoleum crypts have a small bronze or aluminum vase mounted on the front, beside the nameplate, on a bracket or a ring. It holds a compact arrangement, usually 6 to 10 inches across. Some crypts have two.
• Niche vase or bud vase. Columbarium niches, being smaller, often have a single small ring vase for a few stems, or no fixture at all. Glass-front niches have space inside for a small arrangement placed at the time of inurnment, and nothing outside.
• Floor or ledge space. Indoor mausoleums have marble floors and sometimes a ledge below the lowest row of crypts. Placing things on the floor is prohibited in nearly every mausoleum; the ledge is sometimes allowed.
• Nothing. Many garden columbaria and older mausoleum walls have no fixtures. Flowers then go in a communal vase or at a designated area, or a bracket vase is purchased from the cemetery and installed.

What fits

Small. A crypt or niche arrangement is a fraction of a graveside arrangement: a compact cluster on a foam base sized to the vase, rarely more than ten inches across, and low enough not to cover the neighboring nameplate. Silk is the near-universal choice, indoors and out, because water in a wall-mounted vase is a maintenance problem and fresh flowers in a sealed building wilt quickly.

The rules

Mausoleums and columbaria are stricter than lawns, and the rules are enforced by whoever cleans the building, often daily.

• Only in the vase. Nothing taped, hung, propped or set on the floor. Adhesives damage marble and are the most common cause of items being removed.
• No candles, no food, no glass. Universal indoors.
• Size limits. Many buildings specify a maximum arrangement size so that neighboring crypts stay visible.
• Removal schedules. Indoor spaces are cleared more often than lawns, sometimes weekly, and always before holidays when visitors are expected.
• Hours. Indoor mausoleums lock. Deliveries happen during building hours.

The cemetery office has the mausoleum's rules in writing; ask for them before ordering the first arrangement.

Cremation gardens and scattering areas

Where ashes are buried in a cremation garden, the grave is a small plot with a small flat marker, and the ordinary rules for flat markers apply: a built-in vase if there is one, a staked arrangement if allowed. Where ashes were scattered, there is usually a communal memorial with a designated place for flowers, and nothing is placed on the scattering ground itself.

If the crypt or niche has no vase

Ask the cemetery whether a bracket vase can be added; most sell and install a standard one for a fee, and it is the single change that makes flowers possible there. Until then, a small arrangement in the building's communal vase, or at the designated area, with the photo showing the nameplate, is the usual answer.