Old fashioned roses, especially Teas, Chinas, and Polyanthas; Crinums, Cannas, Hymenocallis, Narcissus, Jonquils, Lantana, Crape Myrtles, Nandinas, Oxblood Lilies, Spider Lilies, Amaryllis, Montbretia, Turk's Cap, and Purple Jew, to name a few. Greg Grant of Stephen F. Austin Univ.

CEMETERY FLOWERS
The custom of placing flowers and flowering shrubs or trees in cemeteries comes from the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. Flowers were found, for example, in King Tut's tomb. Still today, cemeteries are frequently adorned with a variety of flowers, plants, and trees. The same Iris x albicans (White Flag) used as a cemetery plant by the Muhammadans is still common in most American cemeteries. The iris, especially common in cemeteries, is perhaps best interpreted as simply another representative of the traditional flower custom. It possesses the added advantages of helping hold the scraped earth in place and requiring little care. However, some folk ascribe a Christian symbolism to the iris. Growing in clusters, they say, its pointed blades collectively resemble palm fronds, symbolizing Palm Sunday and Christ's last journey into Jerusalem. Too, some identify the iris with the Nile reeds that hid the infant Moses. The flower of the iris was an ancient Egyptian regal symbol but seemingly had no funerary significance there. The most commonly used cemetery flower has to be the rose. So common are roses in cemeteries that even the names of the graveyards often derive from this plant. One may often find many "Rosehill", "Roselawn" and "Rosedale" cemeteries The Virgin Mary inherited the rose symbol from her prototype and is herself the "Rose of Sharon". Often in paintings, the Madonna is shown with roses. Not surprisingly, then, the rose bush became a typical European cemetery plant, particularly in the provinces once ruled by Rome, including England. The link of the rose to the mother goddess is well known, for this flower appears in many surviving depictions of her. Demeter or Isis are often shown riding on a rose-wheeled cart, while in Rome the Magna Mater's attendants were garlanded with roses. We still associate roses with motherhood, particularly on Mother's Day, when offspring wear them to church.

The lily is also a common cemetery plant, often replaced in Southern cemeteries by other lily-like plants including crinums, narcissus, amaryllis and other hardy bulbs. The lily, derived according to Mediterranean mythology from the milk of Hera and later well established as a symbol of the Madonna, is also a common cemetery plant. It seemingly made a transition from paganism similar to that of the rose. Yet by no means do the rose and lily complete the list of typical cemetery plants. Evergreens, irises, crape myrtles, bluebonnets, true myrtles and nandinas are common. Of these, the evergreen, represented in Texas by the cedar or juniper, appears most consistently. The frequently seen nandina (Nandina domestica), a native of Eastern Asia, is often known as heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo, where it is used as a traditional cemetery plant. The Japanese also use Rosa whichuraiana, known as the memorial rose, as a groundcover for individual graves. This rose is often represented in rural cemeteries by rambling roses, particularly 'Dorothy Perkins', a 1901 whichuraiana hybrid.

Deeply ingrained in southern cemetery custom, the use of flowers has spread to new varieties over the years. The traditional rose and lily have been joined by the gardenia, magnolia, azalea, bluebonnet, crape myrtle, nandina, and a host of others.