Warm Weather a Threat to Parade Flowers
The temperature outside the Rose Parade float tent was pushing 80 degrees Sunday in Duarte.
Although unseasonably warm, it certainly wasn’t enough to make the hundreds of volunteer float decorators working inside wilt from the heat.
But it was hot enough to cause floral designers to work up a sweat.
The experts rushed to pull gladiolus and other slow-blossoming flowers from insulated trailers that had earlier been heated to speed up the blooming process.
Off went the heaters and on went refrigeration units as roses and orchids were hurriedly moved inside the trailers.
That’s the kind of delicate juggling that’s necessary when you have $600,000 worth of fresh-cut flowers on your hands like Jim Hynd does, and you want to make certain that each bloom looks fresh for the world’s most famous parade.
Volunteers this afternoon will start placing flowers on the 14 floats being decorated at Fiesta Parade Floats facilities in Duarte. On Sunday they were gluing seeds and other materials in place.
“You put the most durable materials on first--foliage, flowers that can go several days without water such as chrysanthemums or dendrobium orchids,” Hynd said.
“Roses and spring flowers from Holland are more fragile. You keep them in refrigeration until the last minute. The last minute for us is the night of Dec. 30th.”
The most delicate flowers travel the parade route in individual glass water vials. On Sunday, workers at a warehouse a quarter of a mile north of the float tent were filling the 1.2-million tiny containers with water.
“I’m a positive-thinking person,” said Hynd, a Montclair florist and part owner of Fiesta Parade Floats who for more than 20 years has chosen flowers for Rose Parade entries. “If a flower needs to be chilled, we do it.”
Plenty may need air conditioning for the next few days at least, according to weather forecasters.
Unseasonably warm weather with temperatures in the upper 70s are predicted for today and Tuesday, said Jeff House, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.
It will be cooler on New Year’s Day--with highs in the upper 60s, House said.
Float builders said warm weather is still preferable to the bone-chilling cold of last week.
“Glues work better,” said one. “So do work crews.”
Volunteer decorator Judy Calora said she was more than happy to use vacation time from her job with a computer chip manufacturing company to work for free on a U.S. Postal Service float so she could enjoy warm weather.
On Sunday she was working near a refrigerated trailer that was filled with boxes and pails of roses, chilled to 38 degrees. Calora didn’t get too close to the trailer door.
“There was nine inches of snow back home and it was freezing cold. I drove nine hours for this,” said Calora, 47, of the Sierra foothills town of Pollack Pines.
Sunday’s decorating attracted the first of what will be thousands of float fans who will peek inside parade pavilions in and around Pasadena during the next few days.
Visitor Marie Brazier, 86, of East Alton, Ill., was not disappointed that there were no flowers yet to be seen on the skeletal outlines of the Target or Rain Bird company floats she was studying.
“I came here for the weather. I like it warm,” Brazier said.
Her daughter, Diane Lucas, 52, of Arcadia, nodded in agreement. “The only time I like cold weather is when I’m skiing.”
Brazier’s granddaughter, Adrienne Lucas, 22, an economic analyst from Brookline, Mass., said she wasn’t worried that the heat spell will spoil the flowers.
“I don’t think a few wilted flowers will make a difference to the spectacle of the Rose Parade,” she said. “People from out of town will enjoy it nice and warm.”
On the other side of the tent, floral designer Jim Watson sought out a sunny spot to stand. He was wearing a jacket and his hands were in his pocket.
“I’m from Puerto Rico,” said Watson, 37, who paid his own way to Duarte to volunteer on the floats.
Nearby, flower supervisor John Cartier of Pomona was adding a chemical to the water containers holding the balking gladiolus.
“That will force them to bloom. We’d hoped to leave them in a heated trailer overnight, but we needed to chill the trailer for orchids,” he said.
Floral expert Susan Overton, a Riverside designer who is president of the 1,200-member American Institute of Floral Designers, said 22 professional florists will provide the finishing touches for the Fiesta company’s 14 floats.
As for the weather: “I’m not sweating,” she said. “Yet.”
