Flower Shops Continue Memorial Tradition

On this holiday to remember loved ones who have died, people continue the tradition of placing flowers at headstones.

Some of the bright arrangements you’ll see in area cemeteries are made at “R & R Floral” where employees have been making gravestone sprays, wreaths and baskets since 1958.

Owner John Schweke says most of his customers are 50 years old and older – people who grew up watching their parents place artificial flowers on graves of family members and friends.

"A lot of younger people don't think they'll ever decorate a grave,” said Schweke.  “But when their mother or grandmother dies, its so important to them, they realize, hey, I need to go out and decorate because mom would have wanted me to."

"We always went to these cemeteries around and had dinner on the ground and we would go to one place one Sunday and the next Sunday there'd be another place,” said Fledia Acuff, who decorates gravestones.  “We just always went as we grew up and I just always thought it was very important to go every Memorial Day and take flowers to the people who had gone on."

Schweke says since he took over the Floral Factory from his father, business continues to improve, as more people decide to continue the tradition of honoring loved ones with flowers at their gravesite.