American Honda (#27)
Float Theme: Once Upon a Time American Honda celebrates the good nature that classically triumphs in fairy tales, fables and internationally renowned festivals such as the Tournament of Roses. Drawing on the lore of good nature battling evil nature in centuries of classic fables and nursery rhymes, American Honda presents a pair of fabulous dragons. Breathing actual fire and smoke, the good dragon soars 50 feet above the parade route to protect a gigantic fairy tale castle from the onslaught of evil. Flames leap nearly 15 feet out of the dragon's mouth, and smoke streams from its nostrils as it engages in an epic moral battle — ensuring that the princess of the castle will live happily ever after.
American Honda has captured major parade awards 11 of the last 12 years. The company provides the Tournament of Roses with all of the motor scooters used by white suited volunteers on parade duty and provides automobiles and vans for parade officials and Tournament of Roses transportation needs.
Bayer Advanced™ (#11)
Float Theme: The Red Carpet of Roses
Everyone enjoys the beauty, glamour and color of the Red Carpet. Bayer Advanced offers a spectacular presentation of roses, roses and more roses filling a classic, gazebo-style greenhouse accented by a flowing garden nymph water fountain. "The Red Carpet of Roses" features scores of "celebrity" flowers — three new varieties of roses make their world debut on the float, as do several additional roses named for well-known entertainers.
Bayer Advanced is the exclusive rose care product of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. The company is also the official sponsor of the Wrigley Gardens, the four-and-a-half-acre garden that surrounds the Association's executive offices in Pasadena; the garden features 1,500 varieties of roses, camellias and annuals. Bayer Advanced has won an award in each of its previous six years of Rose Parade participation.
Burbank Tournament of Roses Association (#76)
Float Theme: Free Dog Wash
The Burbank float features a good-natured young lad who has decided to clean up the neighborhood by offering free dog washes. After finishing with a poodle, who is very pleased with her new look, the boy turns to a neighborhood mutt. Behind the tree, a future customer plays in the mud one last time before his turn.
Seated on a velvet cushion of Love Story red roses, the poodle is styled in over 4,000 Nora pink carnations. Her clipped coat is made of white pearl rice dusted in crushed fuchsia bougainvillea. The float features nearly 3,000 roses, cattleya and dendrobium orchids, white and dark blue irises, and Butterscotch, Bronze and China mums. With one of six self-built floats in the parade, Burbank Tournament of Roses Association is a year-round organization, composed entirely of volunteers who design, build and decorate the float.
Cal Poly Universities (Pomona & San Luis Obispo) (#62)
Float Theme: Artic Antics
The float depicts a jolly group of polar bears and penguins enjoying a South Pacific, luau-themed party as a hapless polar bear skids across the ice, and several small penguins try to haul him to safety. On one side of the float, a pair of penguins is performing a slippery snow limbo while, on the other side, a penguin band serenades a polar bear dancing the hula.
With more than 17,000 roses, 550 mums and 300 bunches of carnations, the float is also adorned with Celosia flowers, lettuce seeds, parsley, flaxseed, sweet rice, various colors of statice, bougainvillea, cauliflower seeds, strawflower and crushed walnuts. In search of a unique decorating material for the outer face of the tiki torches, the student decorators chose to use parsley for the outer eyes and flaxseed for the eyes. "Arctic Antics" is the 59th entry by Cal Poly Universities. Every year more than 1,000 volunteer student, alumni, faculty, staff, parents and friends come together between Christmas and New Year's to decorate the Cal Poly float.
China Airlines, Ltd. (#60)
Float Theme: Natural Beauty of Taiwan
The China Airlines float introduces Taiwan's Lotus Festival to the world. The lotus blossom is part of the natural beauty and goodness of Taiwan. China Airlines has been in the Tournament of Roses for 21 years and has won 15 trophies.
The fish on the float are decorated in warm tones with carnation petals, strawflowers and white dendrobium orchids. Rose, carnation and orchid petals cover the wings of the gracefully animated butterflies. Poinsettia petals are fashioned to produce the pink and peach colors of the lotus petals. Crushed coconut, white carnation petals and thousands of dendrobium orchid sprays create the brilliant centers of the sculptured blossoms. The magical gardens growing on the bottom of the lotus pond include wedgwood and blue ribbon irises, lavender and Orchid Beauty carnations, sterling silver roses and lavender cattleya orchids. Accents include pincushion protea, queen protea, pink ginger and pink Asiatic lilies.
