Placing an elegant flower arrangement on top of a headstone is a beautiful way to memorialize a loved one who has passed. But how do you attach the flowers so they don't blow away in the first wind that rolls through the cemetery after you've place them? You obviously don't want to have your flowers lost, but you also don't want to attach them in a fashion that looks bad or might damage the stone.
The headstone spray, which is a very popular style of grave site floral arrangement, can be placed on the ground atop the grave, on an easel next to the grave stone, or perched on top of the stone. Of the three options, having the spray on top of the stone looks the best, and is how the arrangement was really intended to be displayed.
Most sprays are sold with a saddle that is made of coat hanger-like wire that is bent to fit over the top of the stone and hold it in place. These saddles do a decent job of holding the flowers in place, but they can still be blown away if the wind gets strong. The other issues with saddles is often times they look cheap, and if they're made from low-cost materials, can rust and leave rusty streaks running down the face of the stone.
We've also seen other strategies for attaching flowers that are quite crude, ineffective, and unattractive, such as the use of plastic wrap, duct tape, wire, zip ties, and fishing line. While some of these strategies are quite creative and border on engineering marvels, they typically don't look very good. Especially when you get close!
Graveside Flowers sells a product that will anchor your flowers to a headstone in a way that is completely hidden from view, won't damage the stone, will hold up to a strong wind, is made from aluminum, so it won't rust...and doesn't cost that much more than a roll of duct tape. This innovative headstone flower arrangement anchor (pictured to the right) retails for just $14.99 and makes a perfect, and permanent, solution to the problem of securing flowers on top of a grave marker.
To buy one for yourself, click on the following link: http://www.gravesideflowers.com/collections/accessories/products/headstone-anchor
19 comments
Very helpful I’m going to order these! Question.. One headstone we have is slanted at the top, thus the regular saddle has never fit quite right. Had to use fishing wire to secure but easily lost in our spring s
Aluminum doesn’t rust, so it should be fine.
The anchor itself will never rust. It’s made completely of aluminum and stainless steel components.
Some saddles are made with material that will rust over time, but many aren’t. You should definitely check your saddle material if you’re going to leave the spray out long enough to rust.
The anchor for flowers works very well but a funeral director pointed out one thing to us. If the rubber breaks off and it rust. the rust will run down onto the stone and will not come off. All the wire needs to be covered. If you walk into a cemetery and look around you will see where the rust stains are on stones from these types of saddles.