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Crunch Time continues as South Pasadenans put the final flowers and flourishes on our beautiful and spirited self-built float today! The Tournament of Roses judges are scheduled to arrive at 4pm but they could run late. Nevertheless, Janet Benjamin tells us they must be ready. “The judges are very serious. They begin by ringing a bell and we must all be silent. We are not allowed to speak to the judges. They have a handler with them who may ask questions of myself or the construction chair. After a couple of minutes, they ring the bell again and we can all whoop and hollar as much as we want!”
When you see our float live or on TV be on the lookout for the special details like the use of the buffalo grass which was used to create the ostrich feathers. Benjamin says, “The buffalo grass is black and grey, the black goes on top of the ostrich and the grey goes underneath and it was grown for us in Indiana. When we put out a call for buffalo grass, the answer came from the Burbank self-built float who gave us the Indiana contact. The six cities who do the self-built floats are a wonderful, supportive community. We all help each other out.” She continues, “we’re all out to make a great parade and if we can help each other out, we do. A few years ago, we needed white roses at the last minute and La Canada came out with twelve flats of white roses for us.”
Also look for the 40,000 burgundy roses that will be adorning the roadster. They were all grown in Ecudor for us and it’s the largest use of roses we’ve ever had on one element of the float.
