At Griffin’s Floral Design we celebrate Memorial Day by hand-arranging elegantly patriotic floral designs in remembrance and honor of soldiers who lost their lives in war. Observed on the last Monday of May annually, Memorial Day marks more than long weekend away from work; it is a holiday set aside nationally to honor and remember our nation’s fallen soldiers and to reflect on the sacrifices which they and their families made on behalf of our country.

Although the act of commemorating fallen soldiers by placing flowers on their graves dates back to the beginning of recorded history, the observances particular to our modern Memorial Day ceremonies began to take hold not long after the American Civil War. Volunteering women decorated the graves of soldiers in both the north and the south with flowers to commemorate their sacrifices. In 1865, General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic sent out a proclamation which decreed that  in honor of fallen soldiers everyone across the United States would celebrate Decoration Day on May 30th, a date on which the anniversary of no battle fell and a time of the year when blooming flowers were in abundance. Over time, the day gradually became more commonly known as Memorial Day than Decoration Day, and in 1967 the holiday’s name was officially changed.

Patriotic Spirit Spray

Today, Memorial Day is celebrated with the decoration of graves in national military cemeteries, official services, flag ceremonies, and speeches. Local communities and families honor their own fallen soldiers with parades and memorials and they decorate their graves with photos, patriotic memorabilia, and, in echo of the past, with flowers. Floral arrangements designed specifically for Memorial Day, such as our Patriotic Spirit Spray, honor and respect our fallen soldiers. Memorial Day arrangements often feature patriotic colors with red, white, and blue roses, daisies, lilies, carnations, gladioli, delphinium, and irises and they also usually include patriotic accents such as coordinating ribbons, flag picks, and keepsake vases.

This Memorial Day, our professional florists at Griffin’s Floral Design can help you select and design an appropriate, beautifully patriotic floral arrangement to commemorate a soldier who has fallen from your life.