7 Things Missouri Cemeteries Can Remove From a Grave Without Telling the Family
The second week of November is a decoration removal week at St. James Cemetery.
All decorations are removed and disposed of and aren’t saved for retrieval.
These are the things Missouri cemeteries can remove from a grave, often without telling the family.
Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Cemetery rules vary by cemetery and are subject to change, so confirm the current details with the cemetery’s office.
1. Flowers Past Fifteen Days
The cemetery code in Scott City, Missouri, lets the city remove flowers that stay on a grave over fifteen days.
The code allows that without notice.
Artificial flowers count too.
If you visit every three weeks, you could arrive to find the flowers already cleared.
2. Balloons and Toys
Cemetery staff in St. James, Missouri, will remove and dispose of the balloons and toys on a list in the city’s code.
Pinwheels are on it.
So are potted plants, votive lights, solar lights, eternal flames, figurines, and statuettes.
If you leave a toy or a potted plant at a grave there, staff can take it away.
The same code says cemetery personnel remove flowers and all grave and crypt decorations periodically.
3. Benches and Statuary
The cemetery regulations in Wright City, Missouri, list statuary and benches among the obstructions that can’t go on graves without the city’s approval.
If you add a bench or statue to a family plot without that approval, the caretaker is authorized to remove it and dispose of it.
Marshfield, Missouri, bars any seat, vase, wire work, or rock work on a lot in its cemetery chapter, unless the cemetery’s rules allow it.
Even vases are listed.
The chapter also reserves the right to remove, from any lot it sells, anything the cemetery board decides conflicts with those rules.
4. Glass and Ceramic
Scott City bars glass, porcelain, ceramic, and tile from inside the cemetery boundary, so you can’t bring any of them in.
In Wright City, the regulations say glass, ceramic, and porcelain containers, decorations, and figurines will be removed for the safety of the caretakers, city employees, and the public.
A mason jar of flowers or a ceramic angel you bring would break the rules in both towns.
5. Plantings
Memphis, Missouri, can remove a planting from a grave space if the city deems it improper, unsightly, or dangerous to people or equipment, the cemetery code says.
No notice is needed.
The same provision reaches a planting that hinders mowing, raking, or other care of the cemetery by city personnel.
If a tree, shrub, or plant on or beside your lot becomes detrimental to an adjacent lot, the board may remove it without notice to you.
Tipton, Missouri, bars planting any tree, bush, shrub, flower, or vine in its cemetery, and the city may remove such an item without notice.
If you hold the lot, the code says the cost of removal may be charged to you.
6. Flags After the Holiday
The cemetery code in St. James says U.S. flags will be removed seven days after Memorial Day or Veterans Day and then disposed of.
After Veterans Day, that’s November 18.
If you want to keep a flag, take it home before the seventh day.
St. James Cemetery’s Removal Calendar
St. James Cemetery sets two decoration removal weeks a year, the second week of May and the second week of November.
The code says all decorations are removed and disposed of in those weeks and aren’t saved for retrieval.
A cross counts as a decoration, so it comes out on the same dates.
Funeral flowers on a new grave will remain only one weekend after the burial.
U.S. flags have a separate removal date in the code, which doesn’t say whether those two weeks apply to them too.
The cemetery office is the one to ask.
7. Borders and Fencing
Tipton’s cemetery code bars you from putting coping, curbing, fencing, hedging, borders, or enclosures around a lot.
The city reserves the right to remove them if they’re erected, planted, or placed anyway.
Planted hedges count too.
St. James prohibits borders around a lot or set of plots.
Its code says any existing border more than one inch above the ground will be removed.
Holiday Decoration Windows
The cemetery code in Troy, Missouri, sets how long holiday flowers and decorations can stay on a grave.
Flowers and decorations placed for Easter, Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or the Fourth of July are allowed to remain for a minimum of six days.
Christmas flowers and decorations must be removed by March 1.
Birthdays aren’t listed.
Flowers and decorations you place at any other time may be removed at any time, the code says.
City, County, and Association Rules
Missouri’s endowed care law defines a cemetery in a way that leaves out cemeteries held or operated by an incorporated city or town or by a county.
Every removal rule above is written in a city code.
The towns differ.
Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hannibal, Missouri, publishes decoration guidelines through the Mount Olivet Cemetery Association.
Those guidelines say all loose items are removed after March 15 for the annual spring clean-up.
Items can go back on graves beginning May 1.
A second removal comes after July 1, this time for the mowing season.
If you leave a loose arrangement on a grave in July, it’s probably among the items that will be removed.
Psst! How much do you know about cemetery rules? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Cemetery Rules IQ
Answer these questions on cemetery law. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Before a Missouri burial site can be declared abandoned and revert to the cemetery, how many years must pass since the last recorded activity on it?
A County Rule Reversed
Mississippi County, Missouri, posted a cemetery decoration rule in February 2026.
The rule told families to remove all decorations, ornaments, and personal items from graves before July 5, or the county would dispose of them.
That's a county telling families in advance what it planned to remove.
The TV station KFVS 12 reported that dozens of families complained on social media.
The county rescinded the rules.
In its place, the county says it will mow a grave site when it can and spray when it can't.
The county adds that the spray is concentrated and needs to be applied only twice a year.
If you don't want a grave sprayed, you can remove the items so the county can mow instead.
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