Day of the Dead in Monterrey

Flowers for the Day of the Dead: a piece built for a crowded table

The tone of this occasion catches people out. It is warm and social, closer to a family gathering than to a condolence call, and an arrangement chosen in the register of sympathy reads wrong the moment it comes out of the box.

Orange and yellow do the talking, and marigolds carry both better than anything else in season.

Where the arrangement has to sit

The altar is usually a set of tiers, and every level is already occupied by photographs, candles, small dishes and glasses. A tall bouquet in wrapping has nowhere to go, and standing water next to paper and an open flame is a nuisance nobody needs. That is why most of what florists build for these days is low and self-supporting, set on wet foam inside a shallow tray. Height is kept below the frames so the faces in the photographs stay visible from across the room.

The second format is a garland or an arch along the edge of the altar. It frames the centre instead of filling it, which suits a household that has been arranging the same shelf the same way for years.

The third is loose heads and petals. A path of marigold petals from the doorway, a pattern across the tabletop, a scatter around a bowl of fruit. Laying it the evening before works better than doing it on the day, since petals hold overnight in a cool room and the morning is taken up with everything else.

How the delivery usually goes

Two people tend to order. One lives in the household and wants the flowers in the house before the altar is dressed. The other is far away, sending to relatives, and wants the arrangement to arrive with a name attached so the family knows who it came from.

Both cases point at a morning slot. A courier in Monterrey hands the box to whoever opens the door, and foam-based work can wait an hour on a hall table without anyone having to find a vase for it.

Anything that needs water needs a person to look after it on a day when nobody has a spare hour.

What to look at when the box is opened

Turn the piece and look at it from the side rather than from above, because the side is where a rushed build shows. Foam visible between the heads, stems of noticeably different lengths, wire and netting on show at the rim: all of it reads at arm's length.

• Weight. A piece that feels light for its size has been planted thinly.
• The rim. Leaves or moss should close the edge all the way round, not just at the front.
• Scent. Marigold smells sharp and green, which is part of the occasion for some households and too much for others.
• Pollen. Lilies drop it onto a cloth that is already laid for food.

Marigold heads hold their shape well after the stem has softened, and cut stems last around a week in water. Out of water the heads stay presentable for roughly a day. That covers the evening and the morning after, which is what the occasion asks of them.

Ordering ahead

Demand collapses into two or three days, and what runs out first is not flowers as such but the warm end of the palette. Orange marigolds and golden chrysanthemums go before anything else on the bench. Deep burgundy, which is what gives a warm arrangement its depth under candlelight, is usually the next gap. A week of notice leaves the florist a choice of shade.

Later than that and the order becomes a conversation about what is left in the cold room, which is a different conversation altogether.