Flower & Decoration Policy
Flower & Decoration Policy
The most difficult and emotional challenge any Perpetual Care cemetery faces is the enforcement of a flower and
decoration policy. While we attempt to allow families some freedom in decorating, our priority is to provide a safe
environment for families, visitors, and employees.
The policies and guidelines below are created with the following thought and considerations in mind:
✅Safety of visitors and employees
✅Beautification of cemetery
✅Efficiency for the cemetery staff to maintain the grounds
- Flowers, flags, and decorations must be confined to the flower vase and not exceed 30” in height and in the vase with flowers. Gluing, taping, wiring or otherwise affixing items to the vase and/or memorial is discouraged due to scratching and damaging the bronze finish, and is thus prohibited.
- No breakable items permitted. Broken debris from these items can cut visitors and employees, as well as, be thrown by mowers and weed eaters and injure people and/or damage vehicles. Additionally, they can cause damage to tires.
- If no permanent marker or monument is already installed on the property at the time of the funeral, a temporary marker is allowed to remain on the grave for 90 days. Temporary markers are furnished by your funeral home and NOT Forest Hills. Any “homemade” memorial will be removed by staff.
- Any decoration deemed excessive, offensive, or inappropriate will be removed.
- Flowers left by the funeral home and family after shall remain for 3-5 days following a funeral.
- All memorials must comply with size, material, and location policies. No foot markers are allowed in bronze sections (the few existing ones are grandfathered in). No granite markers are allowed in bronze sections. No new corner markers are allowed. Forest Hills must perform all installations.
- Mowing season can vary some but is generally: March 15 – October 1 depending on weather. At the beginning of mowing season, unapproved items will be removed by staff.
- We are more lenient and allow some exceptions during winter months (Dec-Feb) and during the Christmas holiday season. But this relaxation of policies is NOT a change or a permanent situation and should not be construed as a permanent policy change. Since we are not mowing, we are trying to be accommodating during this 3-month timeframe.
Items NOT permitted in cemetery:
- Shepherd’s Hooks
- Customized metal works, of any kind.
- Trinkets and mementos (Ex: toys, rocks, cars, dolls, candles, bells, jars, globes…)
- Solar lights stuck in the ground (you can place them in the flower vase)
- Benches or chairs – except for portable ones that you bring to use during your visitation times.
- Planting of live flowers, shrubs, trees, bulbs. Live flowers growing in the ground near memorials run a very serious risk of being mowed under or cut down with weed eaters.
- Decorative rocks, pebbles, mulch, landscape timbers, trellis, statues, coping of any kind, statues, etc.
- Any other item deemed to be a hazard or unsafe to people not listed above by accident or omission
- Upright monuments are bigger and have a base which provides a shelf so to speak to set items. Just because of this unique situation, you can still not place trinkets and breakables on the base even though its elevated.
- Anything made of glass, ceramic or porcelain.
