Looking around at a cemetery youll notice that there are hundreds - even thousands - of vases full of flowers. These memorials, placed there by the deceaseds loved ones, are a colorful way to honor that person. One thing you may notice immediately is that the provided vases dont hold all that many flowers. The vases, which are anchored to the headstones, provide the only way to place flowers that will stay. As a matter of fact, in some cemeteries, any memorial placed in a location other than the provided vase will be gathered up and discarded.
If youd like to give your lost loved one a huge bouquet of flowers, but the provided vases simply wont hold that many flowers, make a bouquet that starts with a plastic, disposable plate. The plate allows you to place many more flowers at the grave site than you normally could. To start, youll need one plastic plate, a Styrofoam cone, and the flowers and such that you plan to use.
Glue the flat side of the Styrofoam cone to the bottom center of the disposable plate. Place the plate on a vase or other object that will allow for the cone to hang down. The vase will help you keep the plate steady as you add the flowers and create the memorial. Make sure you know what size cone the headstone vase will accommodate. Choose a cone thats too large and you wont be able to set the memorial until youve shaved the cone down to size. Thats probably not something you want to do while visiting your lost loved one. Choose a cone thats too small and the flower bouquet can tip and lean. Its important that you choose an adhesive thats easy to work with and will not melt away in the rain. The adhesive must work on plastic but hold up under the elements. Check the label on the back of the adhesive to find out more information. If you do a poor job gluing the flowers and all to the plastic plate you can later visit the loved one only to find that some of the flowers have blown away. Start by gluing the first flower to the plastic plate. The stem of the flower should point towards the center of the plate where the flower itself rests on the outer ridge of the plate. Next, lay a stem of leaves next to the flower. Continue gluing one flower and one leave, side-by-side, all the way around the plate. Make sure that each leaf portion and each flower dont align evenly. Glue one flower where it sticks out and away from the plate, where the next flower is receded and closer to the edge of the plate. The flowers should never look like theyre in perfect alignment. Also, the disposable plate should never be seen in the finished bouquet. Start the next layer of the bouquet by again making a round of flower, leaves, flower, but this time, make sure all the flowers of the second layer are shorter than the ones in the first layer. While making the bouquet each layer will recede slightly as compared to the previous row. Youll do this so that the finished bouquet will grow smaller and smaller as it goes towards the top. Dont worry if there are open spaces between the flowers and/or leaves. Later, you can take smaller flowers or greenery, like babys breath or tiny rose buds, to fill in these areas. After youve stacked the flowers in a bouquet fashion youll then glue in the smaller flowers to fill in open areas. Now you can add satin bows, strings of faux pearls, or other embellishments. Make the same bouquet look different for special occasions by placing a plaque in the flowers. The plaque can say "Mom", "Love", "Merry Christmas" or any other phrase. You can make these plaques yourself or purchase them at places that sell memorial items. At the cemetery simply place the Styrofoam cone, which is attached to the bottom of the plastic plate, in the provided headstone vase. The plate rests on top of the vase and holds the bouquet. No one can see the plate; all they can see is the huge bouquet of flowers in the vase. Youll definitely have visitors wondering how you got so many flowers into such a small vase!
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