Commentaries

Arlington Insight
By: Dan Applegate, President

Arlington Floral Policies: A Little History Lesson
June 4, 2007

With the return of warmer weather, Arlington bubbles over with numerous activities including lot owners and visitors who decorate grave sites of loved ones. The addition of colorful floral displays adds to the beauty of the gardens and is indicative of a loving and caring community. Those of us responsible for maintaining the cemetery appreciate the time, effort and expense it takes in order to decorate graves and we therefore want to insure that our daily maintenance activities do not conflict with your desire to decorate and beautify grave sites.

Nevertheless, it is important that our Grounds Maintenance Team, led by Senior Vice President Bob Hunter, has the ability to navigate through the cemetery with the maintenance equipment (most notably, the ten foot mowers) unimpeded by decorations that are prohibited during the active grass-growing (and therefore mowing) season. Here at Arlington, we define that season as April 15^th through November 1^st.

During that time, grave decorations are essentially limited to fresh cut flowers placed in vases approved by Arlington. These flowers are left in place until they are discolored or wilted. At that time, they are removed by members of the Grounds Team in advance of the mowing of that particular garden and the vase is inverted and then inserted back into the bronze memorial. During this time of year, all artificial floral displays are prohibited.

It is worth noting that there are some special holidays where potted plants are permitted for a brief time. Those holidays are: Easter; Memorial Day; Mother’s Day; and, Father’s Day. Potted plants are permitted three (3) days prior to the holiday and are subject to removal ten (10) days after the holiday. There are also special days of recognition when US Flags are permitted on grave sites. Those days are: Memorial Day; Independence Day; Flag Day; Labor Day; and, Veterans Day. As with potted plants, flags are permitted three (3) days prior to the day of recognition and subject to removal ten (10) days after. For a more comprehensive review of these policies, please click on this link.

With regard to the history of our policies, one needs only to examine the history of memorial parks. Hubert Eaton is considered the “father” of memorial parks in America and he developed Forest Lawn Memorial Park in California to reflect his new theories which included a radical visual difference from that of the traditional cemetery where large granite memorials were a part of the landscape. Eaton promoted an open, pastoral, park-like environment where graves were memorialized with flush (to the ground) markers. He also placed restrictions on plantings and other decorations in order to insure that maintaining the cemetery was simpler and that the appearance of the cemetery was cleaner and less cluttered. For more information on Eaton’s influence on memorial parks, please click on this link.

Arlington has, by and large, followed Eaton’s lead in developing its landscape and its rules and regulations. Even so, Arlington’s rules are probably as flexible as most other cemeteries in the greater-Cincinnati area and we try to always be fair and consistent in our administration and enforcement of those policies. My best advice to those Arlington visitors who want to decorate grave sites is to become familiar with our policies. That often saves you time, money, effort and anxiety.