What if your community or club, say a hundred years ago, wanted to build a float for the Rose Parade? Well, you would grow the flowers yourself or get them locally. The whole affair would cost some money; but not much by today’s standards. Pictured above is the prize winning 1926 Lamanda Park float, decorated, delivered and running for a cool $600.
The float presents Lamanda Park as the “eastern gateway” to Pasadena. According to the Rose Parade pictorial for 1926, the front of the float is a road, representing Colorado Blvd. The road then leads under a gateway arch. In the center of the float is “a lovely garden and orchard scene” presenting “an alluring picture of southern California life.” The alluring picture depicted what Pasadena already was and probably what little LP aspired to.
The float was a hit. It won first prize in its division of civic floats.
The featured photo is from Pasadena Digital History.
Floats Were Homegrown Affairs
Lamanda Park raised $600 to build its 1926 float. (Monrovia Daily News 12/14/25) That equates to $10,300 in today’s dollars. Average cost of a high quality float today is about $275,000 before entrance fees.
Though I don’t know the particulars about how the ’26 Lamanda Park float was built, it was common practice back then to use locally grown flowers. That was the point of the parade after all — to show off southern California’s winter bounty.
Gathering all the necessary flowers and greenery took planning and hustle. This announcement in the September 3, 1933 Pasadena Post shows how South Pasadena got the job done. So long as float sponsors came forward, the city would grow the flowers for the float.
Residents and others pitched in to grow flowers. The family that lived in our house during the 1940’s were a scrappy lot who grew chrysanthemums for floats. In 1920 (and maybe other years too), Pasadena Kiwanis Club members grew sweet peas, carnations and roses for that club’s float. (Pasadena Post 10/14/20).
Going back even further, the December 14, 1910 LA Times contained a call from the Tournament of Roses asking “everyone who has flowers to donate to notify the committee so those that are decorating floats will know where to go.” Two weeks later, the Times noted that the growing season had been one of the best ever and “For months the private and public gardeners have been carefully getting their flowers and rose bushes in shape for their best production. There is an abundance of sweet peas in bloom….”
Postscript
There are many East of Allen posts on the Rose Parade. No other city the size of Pasadena has anything like it and I enjoy it every year. Typically, my posts originate from our nearby viewing spot on Sierra Madre Blvd., which is well east of Allen Avenue. One year I posted from inside the float builder’s tents where my son and I helped put flowers on the Boy Scout float. That was years ago, but there is always something new to see with this parade.
Happy New Year to all.
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