Flowers play an important part in many funerals.
They can be chosen to reflect someone’s personality, represent their favourite colours or flowers, or simply provide a beautiful way for family and friends to express their love.
But once the funeral is over, you may be left wondering what to do with the flowers.
Fresh flowers don’t last forever, and it can be particularly difficult to throw them away when they have such strong sentimental meaning.
One option is to have some of the flowers professionally preserved and turned into a memorial keepsake.
Can funeral flowers be preserved?
Yes, funeral flowers can be preserved in several different ways.
Depending on the condition and type of flowers, they can potentially be dried and incorporated into resin keepsakes or framed displays.
You don’t necessarily need to preserve an entire funeral arrangement.
Even a small selection of flowers or petals can be enough to create a meaningful memorial piece.
This can allow you to keep a physical part of the flowers long after the original arrangement would naturally have faded.
What is funeral flower preservation?
Funeral flower preservation involves carefully drying flowers before using them to create a lasting keepsake.
At Nogard Creations, flowers are carefully prepared before going through a controlled drying process.
Once the flowers have dried, they can be selected and arranged for their final preservation design.
Depending on what you choose, this could include individual flowers, petals, foliage or other meaningful elements from the original arrangement.
The finished flowers can then be incorporated into resin or used within a framed display.
What types of funeral flowers can be preserved?
There are many different types of flowers used in funeral arrangements, and each can behave differently during the drying process.
Some flowers retain their shape particularly well, while others can change considerably as they dry.
This is why we don’t promise that every individual flower will look exactly the same after drying.
Natural flowers are unpredictable materials, and changes in colour, shape and size are all part of the preservation process.
However, these changes don’t necessarily take away from the meaning of the finished keepsake.
In many cases, they become part of what makes the piece unique.
Do I have to preserve the whole funeral arrangement?
No.
You can choose to preserve only a small amount of the flowers.
Perhaps there is one particular flower that reminds you of your loved one, or there are a few flowers that you would especially like to keep.
You could use these to create a smaller memorial keepsake.
Alternatively, if you have a larger amount of flowers available, you may want to create a more substantial resin or framed display.
The right option depends on the flowers you have and what you would like the finished piece to represent.
What can funeral flowers be turned into?
There are many different memorial flower preservation options.
Small amounts of flowers can potentially be used to create:
- Keyrings
- Bookmarks
- Hanging hearts
- Small resin keepsakes
Larger amounts of flowers can potentially be incorporated into:
- Resin hearts
- Display blocks
- Spheres
- Coasters
- Jewellery dishes
- Tealight holders
- Photo frames
- Framed flower displays
- Bespoke preservation pieces
This means funeral flower preservation doesn’t have to result in one particular type of memorial.
You can choose something that suits your home, your memories and the amount of flowers you have available.
Can funeral flowers be preserved in resin?
Yes.
Resin flower preservation is one option for creating a lasting memorial from funeral flowers.
Flowers can be arranged inside clear resin, creating a three-dimensional keepsake that allows the original flowers to remain visible.
Depending on the piece, flowers can be positioned in different ways to create a completely individual design.
Because every arrangement is different, no two preservation pieces are exactly the same.
Can funeral flowers be framed?
Framed flower preservation is another option.
Dried flowers can be carefully arranged within a frame to create a memorial display that can be hung or displayed in your home.
A framed piece can be particularly suitable if you have a selection of flowers and foliage that you’d like to see together rather than contained within a smaller resin item.
When should funeral flowers be sent for preservation?
Ideally, flowers should be sent for preservation as soon as reasonably possible.
However, we understand that arranging flower preservation may not be something you’re thinking about immediately after a funeral.
There can be a lot happening at this time, and deciding what to do with the flowers may come later.
If the flowers have already started to wilt, don’t automatically assume they cannot be preserved.
The condition of the flowers will determine what is possible, but they may still contain usable flowers or petals.
The sooner they can be assessed, the more information you’ll have about your options.
What if the funeral has already happened?
You may still be able to preserve some of the flowers.
At Nogard Creations, there is no requirement to pre-book your funeral flower preservation.
This means you don’t have to have made the decision before the funeral.
If you’ve been keeping the flowers and have now decided that you’d like a memorial keepsake, you can get in touch to discuss preservation.
We accept flowers by post from across the UK, with local drop-offs available by appointment in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
What if the flowers have started to wilt?
Don’t throw them away without finding out whether they may still be usable.
Flowers naturally begin to change after being cut, and some flowers will deteriorate faster than others.
If your flowers have started to wilt, handle them carefully and arrange to send them for preservation as soon as possible.
Their condition will affect what can be created, but slightly wilted flowers are not automatically unsuitable.
What happens to the flowers after they arrive?
Once your flowers arrive, they are assessed and prepared for the drying process.
The flowers then spend a significant amount of time drying before they are ready to be used.
At Nogard Creations, flowers are generally removed from the drying process after around 5–6 months.
Once they are ready, the flowers can be assessed again and used to create your chosen preservation pieces.
The complete process can take up to 12 months, depending on the type of preservation and the stage of the process.
This may sound like a long time, but careful drying is an important part of creating a quality finished piece.
Can I include other sentimental items?
Depending on the design, there may be opportunities to incorporate other small sentimental elements alongside your flowers.
For example, some clients choose to include things such as:
- Ribbon
- Beads
- Confetti
- Small keepsakes
- Jewellery
- Other meaningful items
If you have something specific in mind, it is worth discussing it before the final design is created so that we can determine whether it is suitable.
Can several family members have a keepsake?
Absolutely.
One of the reasons smaller memorial keepsakes can be so meaningful is that the flowers don’t necessarily have to become one single piece.
If you have enough suitable flowers, you could potentially create several smaller keepsakes for different family members.
This could allow children, parents, siblings or other close family members to each have something to remember their loved one by.
The flowers from one arrangement can therefore become several individual reminders of the same person.
Do funeral flowers have to look perfect?
No.
It’s important to remember that these are natural flowers.
They may have changed during transportation, while waiting to be preserved or during the drying process.
Some petals may become darker, lighter or slightly different in shape.
Not every flower will necessarily dry perfectly, and sometimes individual flowers won’t be suitable for the final piece.
The aim isn’t to make the flowers look exactly as they did on the day.
It is to preserve what can be preserved and create something meaningful from the flowers you have.
Why preserve funeral flowers?
Funeral flowers eventually fade.
A memorial keepsake gives you another way to keep part of those flowers beyond the natural lifespan of the original arrangement.
For some families, it may be the flowers themselves that hold the memories.
For others, the finished piece becomes a physical reminder of the person they have lost.
There is no right or wrong way to remember someone.
A small resin keepsake can be just as meaningful as a large display.
What matters is that the finished piece has significance to you.
Creating a lasting memorial from funeral flowers
Choosing what to do with funeral flowers can be difficult, particularly when the flowers are connected to someone you love.
You don’t have to preserve every flower, and you don’t have to decide immediately.
If you’d like to keep part of the arrangement, professional funeral flower preservation can turn suitable flowers into a lasting resin or framed memorial.
At Nogard Creations, we work with families across the UK to create bespoke memorial keepsakes from meaningful flowers.
Whether you have a large funeral arrangement or just a few individual flowers, there may be a way to preserve part of them.
Visit our flower preservation collection to see the current range of memorial keepsakes and preservation options available.