Associated Press
By EDMUND K. JOYCE
Gazette-Times reporter

A couple of Corvallis florists have created their largest floral arrangements ever - arrangements too big to fit in any normal vase.

Four floats in today's 110th annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif. feature the work of Twila Weder and her brother and business partner, Jonathon Boundy.

The owners of Expressions in Bloom, Weder and Boundy worked as volunteers for a company that designed 14 of the 54 floats in this year's parade.

The parade kicks off at 8 a.m. today.

The Corvallis florists were invited to work as part of the 27-member design team for Fiesta Parade Floats of Duarte, Calif.

While some designers are paid, Weder and her brother are strictly volunteers.

They met company officials at a florists' convention in Puerto Rico last September and received the invitation-only offer to work on the design team.

The two had never been to the Rose Parade.

They've designed the arrangements on four floats: ``Classic Movie Monsters,'' ``California Cruising,'' ``The Great American Pastime,'' and ``Peter Pan Opens on Broadway.''

This was the first time that Weder and her brother had worked on a parade float.

And what work.

Both have spent the last week in Pasadena working on floats.

Their schedule was intense, including a 24-hour shift from Wednesday to Thursday to prepare the floats for judging.

The most difficult part was getting sore feet, according to Weder and Boundy.

"Climbing scaffolds, hanging off of them, putting roses down the middle of an urn on the monster float - it was all a lot of work," Weder said.

The monster float they worked on includes 30-foot-tall monsters such as the Wolfman, Dracula, and the mummy, all designed with thousands of roses, daisies and other flowers.

"The trees on the float are full of moss and orchids, to create a spidery-looking scene,'' Boundy said. "It is the creepiest design work we've ever done."

The two spent a lot of hours preparing Dracula's casket, designing it with 300 pounds of flowers.

"We prepped flowers for three days, truckloads of flowers," Boundy said. "Just when we thought we were finished and were headed home one night, they brought in at least 18,000 Gerbera daisies at 11 p.m. for us to prep, wire and tape."

That many flowers had to be brought in by forklift, he said.

Both called it a challenge to stay on their feet and arrange flowers on such a large scale.

"The difference from our normal arrangements is that here we used flowers as big, broad brush strokes instead of individual focus points," Boundy said. "We put together hundreds of flowers in big groups, not spread out, so they can be seen from a great distance.

"It's painting with flowers in a very, very big scale.  And when they finally fire them up and they come to life with the animation and sounds, it's an incredibly emotionally charged experience.  There you are, engulfed by the magnitude of it all, surrounded by the Monsters and the beauty, the vivid colours" said Boundy.

Weder and Boundy arrived in Pasadena on Dec. 26 and will leave on Jan. 2, the day after the parade.

"The floats are absolutely gorgeous without anything on them, and to see them come to life is mind boggling," she said. "The hours of time put in to create the amazing detail on each and every float is tremendous."

Weder and Boundy have operated Expressions in Bloom at 1575 N.W. Ninth St. in Corvallis for nearly six years.

Edmund K. Joyce covers business for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached by phone at 758-9529.
Fast Facts

WHAT: Rose parade floats designed by Corvallis florists Twila Weder and Jonathon Boundy

WHEN: Tournament of Roses Parade on ABC, NBC and CBS at 8 a.m. today

LOOK FOR: Weder and Boundy worked on four floats, "Classic Movie Monsters"; "Peter Pan Opens on Broadway"; "The Great American Pastime"; and "California Cruising"