FAQ

What is the Living Urn™?

The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets are unique biodegradable urn and planting systems, designed to transform the cremated remains of a loved one into a beautiful and vibrant living memory tree, plant or flowers. Their proprietary design allows for healthy life to grow beloved friend or family member’s remains, which can otherwise be inhibitive to plant growth. With The Living Urn™, people can celebrate and memorialise the life of a loved one by giving new life to a beautiful tree, plant or flowers.

 

Who developed The Living Urn™?

The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets were developed by a group of entrepreneurial friends, in conjunction with some of the leading arborists and soil scientists in the U.S., with the goal of preserving the natural environment and giving back to the earth. Our idea was inspired by the idea of giving back to nature while, at the same time, creating a living memory to keep our loved ones present in our lives after their passing.

 

Is The Living Urn™ Patented and Trademarked?

Yes, The Living Urn™ has patents pending in the United States and has a Trademark issued with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

 

How does The Living Urn™ Biodegradable Urn Planting System work?

The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets are simple and easy to use and make the experience of growing a beautiful and vibrant memory tree, plant or flowers from the cremated remains of your loved one an enjoyable experience for you and your family.

You can purchase your Living Urn™ for People or Living Urn™ for Pets online or from select funeral homes, veterinary practices, cemeteries, or cremation service providers. Generally, a funeral home or cremation service provider will present you with the cremated remains in a container that they provide. You can keep the cremated remains in this container and transfer them into the Living Urn™ when you get home or when you're ready to plant. Alternatively, you can provide The Living Urn™ to your cremation service provider or veterinarian and request that they place the cremated remains in your Living Urn™.

After your Living Urn™ is filled with the cremated remains, you can place it back in the bamboo shell container for storage while you wait for your seedling. Be careful to keep your Living Urn™ upright and stored in a dry place where it cannot be tipped over or disturbed.

Please refer to your local nursery for your chosen seedling.

What do I get when I purchase The Living Urn™?

The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets are Biodegradable Urn and Planting Systems that include everything you need to plant and grow a beautiful memory tree, plant or flowers. Our systems are comprised of only the highest quality materials, components. Furthermore, we take great pride in only using high quality, all natural 100% biodegradable environmentally friendly and sustainable materials to make our urn and bamboo outer shell packaging. You will receive the following with each Living Urn purchase:

    • Biodegradable Urn
    • Natural Bamboo Outer Storage Container
    • Bag of Premium Growth Mix
    • Bag of Ash Neutralising Agent
    • Bag of Aged Wood Chips

    Why is it better to grow a memory tree from a seedling instead of a seed?

    Growing a memory tree from a seedling is simple and easy and has a much higher success rate compared to trying to grow a tree from a seed. First off, germination failure rates with seeds can be very high. Also, some species of seeds may require special treatment to assist with germination and this can be cumbersome and difficult. In addition, even if you are lucky enough to achieve successful early germination with a seed, surviving natural environmental factors such as weather, temperature, and other conditions such as wildlife can be a challenge.

    We want the experience of growing a memorial tree from the ashes of a loved one to be a simple, easy and enjoyable experience for you and your family. We also want to be sure a beautiful, healthy and vibrant tree grows from the remains to honour your loved one. Therefore, our unique, proprietary growing system is designed to integrate seedlings, not seeds where failure rates are high. For this reason, we provide our customers with the very best, premium seedlings to ensure your loved one is memorialised in the right way and in a manner that they deserve. 

     

    In my Living Urn™ I received a special “Ash Neutralising Agent” and a special “Premium Growth Mix”. What are the purposes of these components and are they important?

    Cremated remains or ash from both, humans and pets, have a high pH level and cause the surrounding soil environment to become highly alkaline when buried in the ground. Furthermore, cremated remains also contain sodium in elevated levels. As such, cremated remains, when mixed or placed in soil, can create an environment inhibitory to plant growth.

    Understanding this challenge, we have worked for years with leading arborists and soil scientists to perfect a special “Ash Neutralising Agent” that is added on top of the cremated remains in the Living Urn™ system (see planting Instructions by clicking on ‘Instructions’ above) to buffer and neutralise the basic nature of the cremated remains and normalise the pH levels in the soil to levels suitable for healthy plant growth. Furthermore, our Ash Neutralising Agent and Premium Growth Mix serve to dilute the surrounding environment from the effects of the concentrated sodium in the cremated remains. Without our agent, the seedling would be in an environment too basic and salty to thrive. The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets Biodegradable Urn and Planting Systems incorporate these special additives to allow you to grow a beautiful and vibrant memory tree, plant or flowers with ease from the cremated remains of your loved one and create a healthy living memorial to keep them present in your life.

     

    The outer bamboo shell is beautiful - what is this used for?

    While the Living Urn™ itself is more than sufficient to hold and store the cremated remains of a loved one, the outer bamboo shell can be used to hold the urn filled with cremated remains when you transport the remains or while you store the remains at your home waiting for your tree seedling to arrive. This provides an attractive and dignified solution to hold and store the cremated remains of your loved one.

    After you plant your Living Urn™, you can use the beautiful bamboo shell as a special container to store small possessions of your loved one, as a flowerpot in the garden, or anything else that you can think of.

     

    Why is The Living Urn™ the best urn planting system?

    While there are presently several urn products available on the market that integrate a tree seed, The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets are the only systems that integrate actual seedlings and provides an all-in-one kit offering, by far, the best product, quality and value.

    With The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets you can receive a premium tree seedlings of your choice delivered to your door and ready to be planted with your urn. We offer a wide variety of tree species and our order platform selects the most popular and interesting species specifically for your geographic area identified by your post code. The other products may offer a single type of pine seed or a variety of seed choices, but most do not guide you on what tree species is best for your specific planting zone. Furthermore, the reason we provide seedlings is because they have the best success rate so you can grow a beautiful healthy tree. Growing a tree from seeds, on the other hand, can be challenging and can have a high rate of failure.

    In addition, our Living Urn™ product and packaging are made from all natural and sustainable materials, respectively, where our competitors use packaging materials that are destructive to the environment and have a high carbon footprint.

     

    Is the Living Urn™ all natural and environmentally friendly?

    Yes, The Living Urn™ for People and The Living Urn™ for Pets are made entirely from plant waste and cellulose. The Living Urn™ is all natural and there are no glues or toxic materials added to the process to build our product. Instead we rely on a combination of wetting and drying our materials and applying pressure to form our urns. All of our products are handmade and do not involve machinery or chemicals providing us with a very modest carbon footprint.

    Our boxes, or outer shells, are handmade from 100% all-natural bamboo, which is a sustainable material.

    We pride ourselves in using only environmentally friendly and all-natural materials in our urn, additives and outer shell packaging.

     

    Can I buy the Living Urn™ to use now with cremated remains of a loved one that I have stored for years?

    Absolutely! The Living Urn™ can be used with any ash stored in another urn. Simply transfer the cremated remains from your urn to The Living Urn™ whenever your seedling arrives, and you are ready to plant. You can plant ash of any age with The Living Urn™.

     

    Does The Living Urn™ or any of its components have an expiration date?

    No, the biodegradable urn, Ash Neutralising Mix, Premium Growth Mix and Aged Wood Chips we provide do not have an expiration date. If you plan to store your Living Urn™ for a long period of time, then we suggest you store it in a dry place. However, because tree seedlings have a shelf life, we highly recommend you plant your seedling within a few days of its arrival in the mail.

      

    May I be a distributor of The Living Urn™?

    Yes, if you are a funeral home crematorium, veterinarian or funeral product distributor, we would love to work with you! Please contact us at info@thelivingurn.co.uk to learn more about our support programs and special packages designed specifically to have The Living Urn™ be a part of your business.

     

    Is it secure to purchase on TheLivingUrn.co.uk webpage?

    Yes. Our website uses the Shopify web payment platform. You can purchase The Living Urn™ using VISA, MasterCard, AMEX or other credit cards in addition to PayPal.

    Shopify includes an SSL certificate that uses industry standard 128-bit encryption technology. This is the same level of encryption used by large banks to keep your information secure. Furthermore, Shopify is certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant which allows it to accept VISA, MasterCard, and other credit cards. Shopify is very serious about security and have invested significant time and money to certify that Shopify is PCI compliant. From annual on-site assessments validating compliance to continuous risk management, we work hard to keep credit card and other sensitive data secure.