Dancing With The Stars champion and war veteran JR Martinez received a hero's welcome as he performed Grand Marshall for the 123rd Pasadena Rose Parade in California.

The 28-year-old – who won this year's competition with professional ballroom dancer Karina Smirnoff – described the event as ‘amazing to be a part of.'

He led the parade of lavish floral arrangements with a huge smile on his face and forming peace signs after being picked to fulfil the role by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association in November last year.

“The Rose Parade began as a way to flaunt California's year-round beautiful weather by showcasing its bounty of flowers,” said Kasey Cronquist, chief executive of the California Cut Flower Commission. “Ironically, today, most floats feature flowers sourced from overseas.”

The kicker came last January. Passion Growers, a U.S. importer of South American-grown roses, signed on as a corporate sponsor of the pageant and was billed as “the official rose of the Rose Bowl.”

That was the impetus, Mellano said, to make sure two of the 44 floats traveling along Colorado Boulevard on Monday are decorated in locally grown roses as well as California gerbera daisies, field mums, alstroemeria, solidago and gypsophila. The last time any Rose Parade float was decorated with 100% California-grown ingredients was well, it has been so long, officials aren't quite sure.

For the 123rd Rose Parade, “Cal Poly to the Rescue” (pictured above), a float created by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Pomona students, and “Timeless Fun for Everyone” (pictured at the top of the post with Janice Vann applying flax seeds), a float sponsored by the California Clock Co., will be decorated entirely with flowers, grasses, seeds and grains harvested in state.

The trade group, which represents 250 family-owned flower farms, and the students agreed that Cal Poly's entry would be decorated only with Golden State materials.

The team is covering its superhero-themed float with an array of California's agricultural riches, including fresh roses, gerberas and irises, as well as rice, onion seed, poppy seed, buckwheat and even tubers. Potatoes form the pathway leading to the float's pond, Trujillo said. (Those are cranberry seeds mixed with annatto seeds to simulate a brick on the Cal Poly float, right.)