Flower lovers around the world rang in the New Year by watching the 119th Rose Parade in Pasadena on Tuesday. Later that day, USC won the 94th Rose Bowl Game, trouncing the University of Illinois, 49-17. It was USC’s third Rose Bowl win in the last five years.
The chance to see the parade (with a few hundred thousand of your closest friends!) is definitely worth the trip. You can always catch it on TV, of course, but if you’re into flowers, this is a great way to spend New Year’s Day. In person, you can really appreciate the color, texture and design of the floral floats.
When the event started in 1890, the aim was to be the West’s version of the festival of roses in Nice, France. This year’s parade, Passport to the World’s Celebrations, featured 47 floats; 24 received awards.
According to Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses, tournamentofroses.com, each Rose Parade float is decorated with more flowers than the average florist will use in five years.
Floats must be covered in natural materials so fruit, seeds, bark and grasses are used (in addition to flowers) to adorn the structures. Delicate flowers require their own vials of water and are placed individually.
Experiencing the Rose Parade in person also means you get a sense of how much hard work goes into making these amazing floats.
Rich Salvaggio, who serves as floral design director for Charisma Floats charismafloats.com, was “exhausted but done” when I talked to him on New Year’s Eve, having worked long hours – sometimes 5 a.m.- 11 p.m. – in the week leading up to the parade. His team included four floral designers, 15 Charisma staffers and about 3,000 volunteers, working in shifts.
Charisma created entries for The City of West Covina, Rotary International and The Portuguese American Community.
The City of West Covina float with its “Viva la Fiesta” theme won the Isabella Coleman Trophy for best presentation of color and color harmony through floral use. “That’s one of the more sought after prizes and most often is won by larger and much more expensive floats. It’s quite a coup to have an under 35-foot float win,” said Salvaggio after the parade.
Salvaggio estimates that about 150,000 stems were used to decorate the three floats, noting that they used more roses than ever before. (Construction begins nearly a year in advance.)
Additionally, his team arranged flowers for the police motorcycles that led the parade, flowers on the Wells Fargo coaches, and the lavender rose on the Norton Simon Museum at 411 W. Colorado Blvd, nortonsimon.org.
Stay tuned for more pics and posts from this very cool event.