Cemetery rules
13 guides on Cemetery rules, from choosing flowers to getting them placed.
What cemeteries allow at a grave, when they clear decorations, and how to leave flowers so they stay. Rules for specific cemeteries, quoted from their own policies.
What to Put on a Grave
What Can You Put on a Grave Instead of Flowers?
Stones, flags, a written card, coins, photos, small keepsakes and winter wreaths: what you can leave at a grave besides flowers, what each one means, and what cemeteries clear away.
Cemetery Rules
The Cemetery Removed My Flowers. Why It Happens and What to Do
Arriving to find the flowers gone is upsetting and almost never personal. The five reasons cemeteries remove flowers, how to find out which one it was, and how to keep it from happening again.
Cemetery Rules
Flowers at a Green Burial Ground or Natural Cemetery: What Is Allowed
Natural burial grounds usually prohibit silk flowers, vases and anything that does not decompose. How to honor a grave in a conservation or green cemetery, and what to do instead of a standard arrangement.
What to Put on a Grave
Flowers for a Pet's Grave: Pet Cemeteries, Home Burials and What Lasts
Pet cemeteries have their own rules and their own feel. What families place at a dog's or cat's grave, how pet cemeteries differ from human ones, and what to do for a pet buried at home.
Cemetery Rules
Flowers for a Mausoleum Crypt or Columbarium Niche: What Fits and What Is Allowed
What a mausoleum crypt and a columbarium niche are, the small vases they have, what size arrangement fits, and the stricter rules of indoor spaces.
Grave & Headstone Care
How to Choose a Headstone Vase: Built-In, Turning, Staked and What Cemeteries Allow
The vase at a grave decides what flowers can be placed and whether they stay. Built-in turning vases, ground stakes, bronze and granite, sizes, and how to replace one that is missing or broken.
What to Put on a Grave
Jewish Grave Customs: Why Stones Instead of Flowers, and What Is Appropriate to Send
Jewish cemeteries have their own traditions: stones on the grave, the unveiling, yahrzeit, and a general preference against flowers. What visitors and friends should know before sending anything.
Cemetery Rules
Cemetery Etiquette: How to Visit a Grave Respectfully
Most cemeteries open at dawn and close at dusk, and many lock their gates at night. Cemetery hours, where to walk, what to bring, and how to visit respectfully.
What to Put on a Grave
Grave Decoration Ideas That Cemeteries Actually Allow
Grave decoration ideas for every season and holiday, sorted by what cemeteries allow, tolerate and remove: flags, wreaths, saddles, photos and solar lights.
Flower Guides
Silk vs Fresh Flowers for a Grave: An Honest Comparison
Fresh flowers are beautiful and gone in days. Silk lasts a season. When each one is the right choice for a grave, what cemeteries think, and why placed-for-you flowers are almost always silk.
Veterans & Military Honors
Flowers at a Veteran's Grave: National Cemetery Rules, Windows and What to Send
VA national cemetery flower rules, from DFW to Great Lakes: fresh flowers any day, artificial flowers only on each cemetery's own dates, no glass.
Cemetery Rules
Cemetery Flower Rules: What You Can Leave at a Grave, and When It Gets Removed
What you can leave at a grave, which flowers and vases cemeteries allow, when crews clear everything, and how to leave flowers so they stay.
Grave & Headstone Care
Headstone Saddle or Ground Vase? How to Pick the Right Grave Arrangement
Saddles sit across the top of an upright headstone. Vase arrangements go beside a flat marker or into a built-in vase. Here is how to choose for the grave you have.