Sympathy flowers in Reno

The places a Reno service actually happens are a short and specific list. Walton's Funerals & Cremations is the region's long-established family firm and runs chapels in both Reno and Sparks; Ross, Burke & Knobel Mortuary sits on Kietzke Lane in 89502 and handles a large share of the city's traditional services; Mountain View Mortuary and Cemetery on Stoker Avenue is one of the few Reno addresses where the chapel and the burial ground are the same property, which simplifies a same-day delivery considerably; and Sierra Memorial Gardens takes graveside work on the north side of town. Hillside Cemetery, on the slope above downtown near the university, holds Reno's oldest burials and has been the subject of a long restoration effort. For church services, downtown carries the heaviest schedule: St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral at 310 West Second Street is the seat of the Diocese of Reno and hosts the city's largest Catholic funerals; Trinity Episcopal Church on Island Avenue sits right on the Truckee; First United Methodist is a block off Virginia Street; and out in the neighborhoods, Our Lady of the Snows and St. Albert the Great carry steady parish schedules. Temple Emanu-El serves the Reno Jewish community, where donations and a plant sent to the family's home are usually more appropriate than flowers at the service, and Chabad of Northern Nevada is a second point of contact. Latter-day Saint stake centers across Reno, Sparks and Spanish Springs hold a large number of funerals, typically with a family-hosted meal afterward, which makes a table arrangement genuinely useful.

A few practical notes that are specific to sending condolences into this valley. First, altitude and air: Reno sits near 4,500 feet with very low humidity, so a service arrangement delivered at nine in the morning will be wider open by two in the afternoon than it would be at sea level, and the shops build accordingly, cutting tighter and hydrating longer. If you are sending to a graveside rather than an indoor chapel, say so — an exposed arrangement at Mountain View or Sierra Memorial Gardens in July afternoon sun, or in the wind that comes up the meadows most summer afternoons, needs a low, dense, heavily based design instead of a tall one. Winter cuts the other way: a January graveside at this elevation can sit below freezing, and blooms left out for an hour will blacken, so morning delivery straight into the chapel is the safer route. Second, the out-of-state sender is the norm here, not the exception, because so much of Reno moved in from somewhere else. If you are ordering from California, Oregon or Arizona for a family you cannot phone, give us the deceased's name as the mortuary has it, the service date and time, and the name of the person receiving the flowers at the house. Third, the card matters more than the upgrade. A hand-written line that names the person who died, in your own words, is what the family keeps.