Rose Parade 2016: Behind the Scenes with the Miracle-Groers

While I’m usually content curling up on the couch to watch the Rose Parade on New Year’s morning, this year Miracle-Gro and their Miracle-Groers made the holiday an adventure! If you’re big on floats, flowers, farmers and gardeners, follow me to Pasadena, where the float Life Starts Here was unveiled. With a recipe calling for California grown flowers and foliage (plus 2 well-placed license plates), Miracle-Gro showcased California's awesome blossoms and "nature's pollinators" that keep the beauty of magnificent crops so abundant throughout the state. The float's sensational display of flowers represented all farming regions of California. I invite you not only to take another peek at this amazing float, but to glimpse behind the scenes as the Miracle-Groers prepared for their ride down Colorado Blvd.

Dubbed the "Miracle-Groers": school garden director, Mud Baron; flower farmer, Harry Van Wingerden; writer, Bonnie Jo Manion; blogger, Susan Phillips; TV host, Ty Pennington and our very own, Mel Resendiz arrived with flowers for the float.

A Welcoming Reception - Mel, Mud and Ty.

The Press Event: Float Decorating at Fiesta Float Barn. During this event, media was there to capture the Miracle-Groers arriving to the float barn with their flowers and then applying their own flowers to the Miracle-Gro parade float.

KTLA Live - Bring them on!

Not only a farmer – An artist as well!

Float Judging Day and CCFC Certification Ceremony

California Secretary of Food and Agriculture, Karen Ross, certifying the Miracle-Gro float "California Grown."

Ready for the ride of a Lifetime!

Miracle-Gro was awarded the prestigious "Governor's Trophy" for "Best Depiction of Life in California"

Click here to see the float being built.

That is how you build a parade float! With a full-on salute to California Grown flowers and nature's pollinators, the 2016 Miracle-Gro float was a real show-stopping stunner.

2016 Farm-to-Float Campaign

With a full-on salute to California Grown (#CAGROWN) flowers and nature's pollinators, the 2016 Miracle-Gro® Tournament of Roses Parade float is already being called a show-stopping stunner.

Life Starts Here 

For about as long as there's been a Rose Parade providing California-style relief to the winter-weary, there's been Miracle-Gro®, helping gardeners everywhere grow beautiful backyard blooms. This year is no exception. 

Miracle-Gro, now in its fourth year as The Official Rose and Flower Care Company of the Rose Parade, anticipates that its 2016 Rose Parade float, Life Starts Here, will inspire people everywhere to dig in and discover their own piece of the earth - a goal befitting the 2016 Parade theme, Find Your Adventure. 

Certified CA GROWN

Life Starts HereAnd because almost nothing is more inspiring to gardeners and flower lovers everywhere than stunning, sustainable flowers, Miracle-Gro's 2016 Rose Parade float is an all-out salute to California's high-quality flowers and the Golden State farmers who grow them. Read the rest of this article at RoseParada.Miracle-Gro.