The theme of the Filoli Flower Show this year is Voyages, with an International Flair. I started thinking about how in many parts of the world, there are beautiful ruins with the jungle creeping over them. It seemed like a fun concept to play with for a living sculpture!
Above photo by Parveen Jain
The mask at the top of the pyramid is actually from Tikal, Guatemala when I visited many years ago, and the pyramid is inspired by the ruins there.
Here you can see us building the wood frame, which is largely made from lumber repurposed from other projects.
For the show, the main build was on Monday, with finishing touches Tuesday. I worked on in on the computer starting a few months back for planning purposes and we built a dress-rehearsal of the frame over a few weekends.
The pyramid is made from close to 150
10” x 20” mixed sedum panels as the side walls (grown like sod in mats made of eco-friendly coconut fiber), 100 2” mixed color Kalanchoe, 850 4” varieties, such as Echeveria ‘Mira’, Echeveria ‘Mahogany’, Aloe vaombe, Dudleya ‘Chalksticks’ and Crassula ‘Chiles’.
Aloe vaombe is the main plant in the headdress, and along with Echeveria ‘Mahogany’ provides contrast with the Sedum panels.
Once the Flower Show is over, the pyramid will come back to Succulent Gardens to live, so come visit and see it!
Above photo by Parveen Jain
