Parsley, flax, oatmeal, and (of course) corn. It’s not part of a grocery list, but among the natural items being used to decorate the University of Iowa’s float in the 127th Rose Parade on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016.

And don’t forget the flowers—about 4,000 of them, mainly roses.

Artistic Entertainment Services (AES) in Azusa, California, is building the floats for the UI and Stanford University, and has done so for the teams participating in the Rose Bowl for about five years.

The UI float is one of 44 in the parade. It’s 35 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 16.5 feet tall, and will feature the Iowa Spirit Squad and Herky.

To bring the school floats to life, AES has a general design that’s approved by the Tournament of Roses and then it starts to build each float around a chassis. Volunteers started putting all the dry material on the decks Dec. 26. Among the details, the large football looming high on the float is decorated with flax.

“Usually there are hundreds of volunteers who show up every day to help with the UI float and the others we’re working on—there are probably about 100 people per day decorating the UI float,” says Kyle Amerine, project manager for AES. “It takes a couple hundred hours to put this together and get it ready to go.”

Flowers start going on the float around 8 p.m. CST on Wednesday, Dec. 30. Then it’ll be ready for the world to see as it rolls down the 5.5-mile parade route on New Year’s Day.

“It’s incredible to watch the smiles and the excitement of everybody on the parade route as they see the floats come by—it’s something else,” says Amerine. “It’s really great to see everyone get ready for the Rose Bowl game.”

The theme of this year’s Rose Parade is “Find Your Adventure.” It will be broadcast live ‪beginning at 10 a.m. CST, on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Check your local listings for more information.