Pasadena, California
Everything on My Rose Parade Float Is a Plant
Rose Parade floats must be covered in flowers, seeds, bark and other natural materials. Every inch of mine was. Mostly lettuce.
At a rainy Rose Parade, the top prize went to Jungle Jumpstart, the only float designed and built entirely by students, from two Cal Poly universities. It took 21,000 flowers, plus coffee and walnut shells. Every visible inch must be plant matter. I made a float.
My Materials
- My face: sunflower seeds, glued on one by one. That took a week.
- My suit: blueberries. Very formal.
- My tie: one very long carrot.
- My smile: white rice, grain by grain. Another week.
- My shoes: two coconuts, polished.
- The ground I’m standing on: lettuce. A lot of lettuce.
Every inch was natural, and nothing was dyed. The judges walked around it twice. One of them said it was the first float she’d seen that you could serve with dressing.
Parade Day
It rained. The parade went ahead anyway, all the way down Colorado Boulevard. So did the snails.
They must have smelled the lettuce, because before the parade was over they had moved in, a whole family of them, right where my feet should be. The blueberries started running too.
The top prize went to the students and their jungle, and they deserved it. I gave my own prize to the snails, who also worked very hard and ate a lot of the float. I’ve learned a lesson about lettuce. Next year, I’ll use bark.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't the floats be painted?
It's the rule: every visible inch must be flowers, seeds, bark or other plant material, and nothing can be dyed. I asked about ketchup. No.
Who builds the floats?
Mostly professional builders. The winner was built entirely by students, which is very impressive. Mine was built by me and, later, some snails.