GRAND FLORAL PARADE FLOAT

Thank you so much for contributing to our floral heavy float. Below is our official float description, my initial sketch, some progress shots, volunteers and Vancouver's mayor, Anne McEnery-Ogle. It was all so big and beautiful. The city of Vancouver was awarded the Rose Festival’s Directors’ Award for the best depiction of volunteerism.

The bulk of our 'green' float was covered with locally farmed flowers: over 2,000 peonies, foxglove, garden roses, freesia, apple branches, rose geranium and lisianthus. The City of Vancouver, Parks and Recreation Department, generously trimmed hardier branch material like wild rose and magnolia for filler. We did not use any foam that could be harmful to the environment – most florals were designed in containers packed with chicken wire.

'Hello beautiful Portland! With love from your neighbor in the apple state, Vancouver, Washington. We are honored to participate in your 117th Grand Floral Parade for the first time in many decades. Our design inspiration draws from both the fruits of our Pacific Northwest landscape and Grand Floral Parade history to style floats with homegrown roses. We present a float that conveys a bountiful orchard above a field of flowers with the use of large scale apples, locally farmed florals, and foliage snipped from our own backyard. We hope you enjoy its sweetness. Please come over the river soon, neighbor, to visit Vancouver, "the city with a colorful past and bright future". A special thank you to the Battle Ground Rose Float team for the use of their former Grand Floral Parade chassis – it’s the apple of our eye.'

Thank you to the Columbian newspaper for the lovely article. See here.