Where spring never stops

Today is a ground hogs day. It is said that the little ground chuck will come out of his burrow and if he sees its own shadow then there will be 6 more weeks of winter. But I know one place in town where it is always spring and is filled with colorful flowers. It is Hausermann Orchids nursery. It is set back from the busy street and you would never know that it is there except for the huge bill board in front of the driveway. When you walk in through a small glass door, it looks like a small shed with a small collections of Orchids under a grow light. But when you walk by the checkout desk, and a small gift shop to the left the whole place opens up to the light filled green house filled with every kind of Orchids that you can imagine....

I was with a dozen photographers this day and after a couple of hours it was decided that we were going for a lunch, but several of us decided that it was more fun to keep photographing these gorgeous Orchids then grabbing hot dogs.. Yes, we are a crazy bunch of people who would rather take pictures then eat.... Here are some more of the gorgeous Orchids...

The day before the Rose Bowl in Pasadena Calif - Part 2

Another area that I was able to observe was where the Cal-Poly University students were making their huge float. This float was totally constructed by the students and as we watched, they were busying themselves with putting the flowers one by one on to the float... The Cal-Poly float was one of very few that was covered in all California grown flowers. No material from other countries was used to decorate it....

This was the area where they kept the flowers before being prepared and used.

Some younger volunteers stripping just the flower petals to be used on the float.

This showed a basic structure and the way the floats were built...

Samples of the natural materials and their variety of colors and textures...

Little closer details of the float and yes they did use the whole potatoes as the cobble stones.

This was a very clever and nice way to ask for donations. You paid $2 and addressed a "To the Rescue" post card. The day of the Parade, the card rode on the Cal Poly University float. After being stamped with "This card rode in the Cal Ploy float January 2, 2012" it was sent back to the addressee. Of course I got mine a few days after the Rose Parade....

In the same area, there were antique cars all decorated with flowers that were going to be used in the Parade. Photographs below are for the Grand Marshall, and for the Tournament of Roses President.

My visit to the float making was a lot more than I had expected. I saw many beautiful floats decorated with breath taking flowers, shopped a little, received University of Oregon colored roses, met many nice people and took vast amount of photographs. Next year? I hope I can make it back and actually see the parade itself...