Focus on Detailing: Flowers and Floral Imagery
Written by: Annissa Cole
Published: 28th January 2026
At J.Gumbrill, we are always happy to work with our customers to produce a memorial that is an appropriate tribute to the person or people it commemorates. This includes appropriate dates and names but can also extend much further than that. Here, Annissa talks about one of the most popular types of detail we are asked to add to a memorial: flowers, and other floral imagery such as foliage, vines, leaves and trees.
Memorials have many purposes- to serve as a marker of a special place, or to be a focus of remembrance, for example. Another of these meanings is to tell passersby about the person who has died, to send a message about their life and perhaps the people who miss them. There are several ways we can do this, and adding detail to the memorial is one of them. As many flowers have well-understood meanings, these can be a way to add decoration to the memorial while also passing on these messages.
Lots of flowers have meanings, and these can be quite complex. For example, in the Victorian period, different colours of chrysanthemums and carnations were thought to convey different messages. At this time, the art of ‘floriography’ was at its height and whole bouquets were created for the purpose of communication. While this is not something so rigidly adhered to today, some of these meanings remain, and some of the most common are:
- Roses – love
- Lilies – death, mourning or sympathy, or purity
- Forget-me-nots – remembering and memories
- Daisies – innocence or simplicity
- Poppies – remembrance, especially related to war
- Snowdrops – hope, new beginnings
Therefore, someone might add detail of a rose to a headstone to show how much the person was loved.
Favourite flowers can be another way to tell us about the person who has died, and of course this can be something that extends far more broadly. Many people have a passion for a certain type of flower, so decorating their memorial with an orchid if they were an avid grower is a way to convey memories of them and deepen our remembrance when we visit the memorial. They can also convey seasons or times of the year:
- Spring: bluebells, snowdrops or daffodils, and flowers in bud
- Summer: sunflowers, dahlias, hydrangeas, and anything bright
- Autumn: chrysanthemums, hips and haws, turning leaves
- Winter: holly, ivy, mistletoe, red roses
Of course, you don’t have to stick to one type of flower. You can create a whole landscape if you want to. The type of material you choose for the stone may have an impact on this. If, for example, you would like a bright bouquet, then it may be that a dark granite stone is a good choice. Firstly, this will make the colours of the flowers really ‘pop’, and secondly the need to sandblast the granite will achieve a clean and sharp shape. At the other end of the spectrum, if you would like an oak tree or a wheat field then you might consider a stone which can be hand carved; commissioning one of our letter cutters to create a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork. Slate headstones are particularly suitable for a large-scale piece. The difference in colour between the stone’s face and its inner can provide contrast and emphasise the image which has been created.
A word of warning before you get your creative thinking cap on… not all burial places will allow memorials to be decorated in all ways, and some may have very strict rules as to what is permitted, not only in terms of detailing but in terms of the materials permitted. Your plans may need to alter accordingly. A churchyard might allow a subtle outline of a rose on a grey granite where they will not permit a red rose on black, for example. However, part of J.Gumbrill’s expert service is to work with you to understand the regulations and we will try to assist in ensuring that the proposed memorial meets those criteria and is accepted for installation in due course.
Next time, Annissa looks at another of the most common forms of decoration- birds and insects. If you would like to commission a distinctive and fitting memorial to someone who has died, please do get in touch to let us know how we can help. In the meantime, you can see just a small selection of previous floral designs on the detailing section of our website.
Thanks for your time, Annissa.
