Marigold at Home

April 4, 2023

We visited Sammy at his new home in Oakland in a charming neighborhood filled with beautiful gardens and blooming magnolia trees lining the streets. A scene perfectly fit for a Landscape Architect turned florist. Before sitting down for coffee we toured his light-filled yard as he told us about his plans for the space, with a flat of beautiful pansies standing by for planting, he told us first order of business will be planting a cherry blossom tree in honor of their baby boy, born just a few weeks after our visit.

We first met Sammy through Natalie Bowen, our floral fairy god-mother who also introduced Aubriana and Gena, all those years ago. Sammy’s spirit exudes all the characteristics you’d find in one of his floral arrangements - expressive, warm, unexpected, and always delightful. We sat down with Sammy and chatted about flowers, his daily rituals, and next moves for the always evolving creative genius.

Tell us how you start your day. What are your morning rituals?

We just had our second child so the new morning ritual is equal parts hazy newborn hangover and a welcome, relief-filled exhale as the new day begins. It’s a bit of divide and conquer right now - Sarah and baby Rocky will linger and rest in bed while I brew a pot of coffee and make our 3yo, Griffin, his breakfast. He’s in a waffle + butter + honey phase…and I’m in a honeycrisp apple phase, Sarah’s in a granola + greek yogurt phase, baby Rocky is in a milk phase. We try to all sit down around the table in the morning, even if it’s just for a few moments. Griffin is really chatty these days, so we give him time and space to tell us about his dreams (spoiler : they never really make sense) and what he’s looking forward to that day.

You are a constant source of creativity and inspiration for those around you. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

This is going to sound tacky, but I think the strongest inspirations come less often from a thing, and instead, a feeling. And for me, they’re often small : the mindfulness choreography of Chinese garden design, the character development musical motifs in the Beauty and the Beast score, Maya Lin’s landscape design statement for her Vietnam War Memorial submission. I’m most moved by the generation of a feeling and the ability to be fully immersed in it.

***How did you get started in flowers?***
It was an accident! I studied landscape architecture in undergrad and was trying to get a garden design studio off the ground. At the same time I had responded to an Instagram ad to scrub buckets and sweep floors for floral designer, Natalie Bowen. It wasn’t supposed to be a glamorous job but I just loved being in the studio, being around flowers. They were a tangible beauty, one that you could hold in your hand, observe up close, inhale…and then give it all away to another. I thought flowers would be a more meaningful medium for me to design and I relaunched the studio as Lambert.

***You recently moved into your beautiful home in Oakland. How would you describe your aesthetic?***
I think it’s always evolving based on context and story, but I do think constant values are livability, delight factor, and an attitude that is decidedly unserious. The home we just moved into is this lovely light-filled Mediterranean, and we’re this young Chinese-American family, so that juxtaposition is a story already writing itself. It’s going to be a work in progress for some time and we have construction plans for down the line, but the vision for our home is sunny Summerland garden meets midcentury Positano pool meets Chinatown street festival…

You have a beautiful collection of art and family photographs in your home. Do you have a favorite piece?

We framed a black and white photograph of my grandma hanging out with her friends in Golden Gate Park in the 1940’s. They’re lounging in the grass, laughing, and they’re so chic and stylish! It lives on our mantel and I love thinking about the life my grandma lived before I met her fifty years later as my Papa. It reminds me that we can never really know what days lie ahead of us and what future selves we will be to those around us.

How did your childhood shape your design career? Have you always been creative and drawn to design?

My dad is an optometrist, and he would always ask me to design signs to tape on the door of his practice for when they would be closed for holidays. At the time I always thought it was a drag but now I realize my dad was my first design client!

My mom has always had a love of plants and flowers and I do recall a particular Mother’s Day when I was in high school where I joined her in redesigning our front yard (actually, I was just digging holes). And that was my first landscape design project!