Making the Floats

Rose Parade rules require every square inch of float surface be covered with "flowers or other natural botanical materials." According to Hynd, natural botanical materials are defined as substances that "have grown, are growing or will grow." So flowers, seeds, mosses, barks, dried leaves, vegetables and grains can all be employed on floats as long as they’re used in their natural color. Dyeing is not allowed.

Working from the hand-colored drawings, floral directors calculate how much of each material they will need to cover each float. "We’ve developed coverage formulas for each flower," Lamb says. "For example, we know that it takes 16 gerbera daisies to cover one square foot of surface." Lamb can also rattle off exactly how many roses, Brussels sprouts, lima beans and sesame seeds it would take to cover a square foot of float.

Where do the flowers all come from?

As early as April, floral directors place their massive orders with numerous flower vendors. "On any given year, I will order 400 to 500 different flower varieties from every continent on Earth, except Antarctica," Hynd says. Charged with building several floats, Hynd and Lamb each will need millions of fresh blooms, all of which need to be delivered within a week or even days of the parade.

Flowers begin arriving at the Pasadena float barns the week of Christmas via refrigerated semi trucks. They are stowed in temperature-controlled tents each the size of half a football field. Each float-building company maintains one or two of these flower tents. The flowers sit in buckets, racks, stacks and cases grouped according to the float for which they’re destined. When it’s time to decorate the floats, volunteer decorators move the flowers from these flower-prep areas to the float-building barns.

Who decorates the floats?

Every year, tens of thousands of people from all over the country volunteer for the privilege of decorating Rose Parade floats. As a float leader, it’s Andrea Zepeda’s job to coordinate their work. Zepeda, of Festival Artists float builders, will schedule members of religious groups, high school bands, Kiwanis Clubs, Girl Scouts and other organizations to work on floats the final 10 days before the parade.

Zepeda will assign each volunteer to a particular float and task, based on their float-decorating experience and skill level. Novices may spend the day cutting flowers, removing petals or gluing large blooms onto a float deck, while more seasoned volunteers tackle intricate sculptural work on figures and faces.