While many want to honor the wishes of loved ones to have their ashes spread on the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, we want to explain why we have a policy against doing so.
Of course, we appreciate that your loved ones (or you) found the Bridge the special place it is, but spreading human cremains there is causing problems — including one that would surely upset anyone who loved it.
That’s because spreading human ashes in the Bridge garden is actually causing the plants and flowers there to decline and sometimes die.
Science tells us that cremation ashes may be harmful when placed in the soil or around trees or plants. While cremains are composed of nutrients that plants require, primarily, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus, human ashes also contain an extremely high amount of salt, which is toxic for most plants and can be leached into the soil.
Additionally, cremains don’t contain other essential micronutrients such as manganese, carbon, and zinc. This nutritional imbalance may actually hinder plant growth. For example, too much calcium in soil can quickly reduce the supply of nitrogen and may also limit photosynthesis.
Finally, cremation ashes have a very high pH level, which can be toxic to many plants because it prevents the natural release of beneficial nutrients within the soil.
And that’s what we’re finding on our beloved Bridge of Flowers.
As our hard-working gardeners attend to this world-renowned treasure we are lucky to have right here, they must work the soil. In doing so, time and again they have found significant human ashes, often after noticing evidence of distressed or dying plants. Encountering human cremains in this way is not fair to our gardeners or your departed loved ones.
The Bridge, a garden that requires constant tending, digging, and rearranging season after season, is really no place for eternal rest.
If we were to grant the requests of all those who ask to scatter the ashes of a loved one on the Bridge of Flowers, the gardens would be overwhelmed in no time. When you don’t ask us and just scatter your loved ones’ ashes, you contribute to the garden’s decline over time.
While we understand the wish to honor a loved one’s wishes, we have to protect our precious garden. The security cameras installed about a year ago as a precaution against vandalism also record all those who come to the Bridge, including those who violate the no ashes policy. Having to take action on such video would be a distasteful and sad outcome for all concerned.
As an alternative to spreading a loved one’s ashes on the Bridge, perhaps you might consider a donation in memory of your person, whose name would then be listed on the Bridge during the year in which the donation is made.
We also do not permit plaques or other memorials honoring the deceased because the Bridge would be overrun with objects when the flowers are, in fact, the stars.
Thank you in advance for your consideration and adherence to the no ashes policy. We hope you will visit the Bridge often, remembering your loved ones as you stroll the garden and gaze at the Deerfield River, knowing that rather than potentially harming the flowers, you are really fully appreciating them.
The Bridge of Flowers Committee members are: Annette Spzila, Carol Angus, Lynda Leitner, Peggy March, Mariana Luz, Joanne Soroka, Marion Taylor, Laurel Rollins, Ginny Ray, Jorie MacLeod and Judy Harlow.