Whimsical cube is a creative, watery garden folly

Here’s a reason I’m a major fan of flower and garden shows – I find things I’ve never seen before. Like this marriage of living walls and water recently displayed at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. Designed by Sean Stout and James Pettigrew of Organic Mechanics, and constructed by Stephen Hosford of Structural Concepts, this cube was a creative take on a garden retreat.

The outer walls of patterned sedum formed a 12-by-12-foot roofless room, and the cube appeared to float on a circle of water. Titled “A Living Room,” the display won a well-deserved gold medal.

“It’s a modern garden folly,” said Sean as he stood in front of his creation on the show floor. Follies can be anything from useless to whimsical to depressing, so I asked for more explanation.

He added what seemed to be Organic Mechanics’ motto: “Sustainable artistic habitats.” But he also said he wanted the cube to feel “lighthearted and picturesque.”

That was my reaction to the structure. The walls were made up of 20-inch square recycled plastic snap-together panels (49 per side) that held the succulents and enough soil to keep them growing.

Going inside

Planted by artistic Robin Stockwell of Succulent Gardens, the variously colored sedums formed a sweeping tapestry across the walls. Sean pointed out that the panels could also have held grasses – “a meadow cube,” he called it – or, if the square were erected in a shaded spot, begonias and ferns.

A long line of people waited patiently to explore the inside of the cube. Sean controlled the traffic so not too many would crowd in at once. Showgoers crossed over the water on a series of widely spaced millstones. The walk was mildly precarious, but in the three days I visited the show, no one had tipped off into the drink.

When I finally hopped along the rough textured stones, I entered the room through a narrow Gothic-arched doorway. Slit windows in the walls allowed for vistas beyond the interior, which was decorated as a charming dining room, complete with a chandelier, curving chairs and a table laid with antique china.

The walls were draped in woven jute, and the ceiling opened up to what would have been the sky, except in this case we were in the cavernous San Mateo Convention Center, where the San Francisco show has found a home.

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