HOLIDAY CENTERPIECE!
During the holidays many customers order floral centerpieces. Some have candles, some have figurines, and many times they represent a theme or a celebration. But what happens when you and objects that move, wheels and a driver? The answer is it becomes a float! This year, Florabundance was the source for several entries in the Pasadena Rose Parade. Their product was the first floral that many people saw as it adorned the City of Pasadena Police motorcycles that opened the parade and welcomed millions of viewers world wide to the exciting parade to follow. The giant rose that flanked the famous Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena featured over 5,700 red and white carnations from Florabundance.
The largest float that featured floral product from Florabundance was the “Tuskegee Airman, A Cut Above” from the city of West Covina. Constructed and decorated by Charisma Floats , it featured the flowers and foliage’s from world wide recourse’s. Hundreds of red and yellow roses, yellow gerbera, red ginger, blue iris, red anthurium and yellow oncidium orchids were flanked by 8 floragraphs of the original Tuskegee Airmen. The floragraghs were constructed from sesame seeds, rice, onion seeds, flax, rape and millet.
The float also featured a shield of red and white carnations and a field of blue iris on which 5 stars covered in twice ground sweet rice were placed. Soaring above the shield were two 1/3 scale Mustang airplanes that the airmen flew in WW II. The planes were covered in poppy seeds and thousands of individual red carnation petals applied one at a time by hundreds of volunteers.
On the rear of the float a giant eagle was constructed out of papyrus grass, blended yellow straw flower aspidistra foliage and thousands of magnolia leaves. All the leaves were covered in cocoa mulch that had been pounded, ground, and sifted to get multiple textures of material to apply to each leaf. The tips of the leaves were covered in shiny flax seeds to capture the New Year’s Day morning sun light and the judges eye. The legs were covered in more ground yellow straw flower and top dressed with grapefruit rind to give the appearance of scales. Giant pinecone scales were applied one at a time to make his talons appear life-like. The eagle was flanked on each side by 17′ American flags made from red carnations, white rice, ground purple statice and sweet rice stars.
The team of 3 judges awarded Charisma the Mayors Trophy for their entry this year! Congratulations to Charisma Floats and Florabundance for producing an award winning combination! This is definitely not your average holiday centerpiece!
