Rose Parade Flower Losses Downplayed : Freeze: Float builders say viewers won’t notice a difference in substitute blooms that will replace those killed by the recent cold snap.

The pre-Christmas cold snap killed some flowers destined for the Tournament of Roses parade, but float builders said Wednesday that most parade-goers will not notice any difference in the bloom department.

“It has us scurrying around, keeping us busy, but it’s nothing serious,” said Rick Chapman, owner of Festival Artists in Azusa, which is building 11 floats for the New Year’s Day parade in Pasadena.

Chapman and the other 10 builders who are putting last-minute touches on their creations for the 1991 parade order the flowers that will cover the 62 floats from nurseries and growers in Central and Southern California.

Between 5% and 10% of the flowers they expected to attach to floats beginning Wednesday were destroyed by subfreezing weather since late last week, according to three of the largest float builders.

Marigolds were the biggest loss, said Felicia Berry, floral consultant for Festival Artists, which plans to substitute carnations or yellow and gold chrysanthemums. About 1,450 bunches of marigolds and some heather were killed, she said.

“We were going to back them up with calendulas, but they’re frozen too,” Berry said.

Bent Parade Floats of Pasadena lost about 120 bird of paradise flowers planned for its 23 floats, said Bill Walleck, director of events. He said that Bent has reordered the flowers from a grower who was not affected by the freeze.

Thom Neighbors, spokesman for Bravo Productions in Pasadena, said that company is short about 5% of its flowers, including 5,000 yellow irises, most from the Santa Maria area in Santa Barbara County. Heather will be used as a substitute on the five floats Bravo is building, he said.

Freezing weather periodically strikes during the holiday season, and so Tim Estes, owner of Fiesta Parade Floats, has a contingency plan. Estes would not reveal details, however, and said Fiesta did not suffer any freeze losses on its six floats.