lomariifolia, in bloom
Madame Ganna Walska’s
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holly, Mahonia lomariifolia, in bloom |
Southern California has an abundance of public and private horticultural gardens and arboreta; you could easily spend a two week vacation there, ignoring the theme parks and beaches, and just scrambling from garden to garden. Santa Barbara’s Lotusland is one of the sparkling gems in this botanical necklace. It is 37 acres fully packed with an eclectic diversity of tropical and subtropical plants organized in a multitude of theme gardens, each of which is a hidden treasure unto itself. It is a very mature garden, with towering trees and luxuriant undergrowth, and with tropical wonders blooming every day of the year.
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| Spiny cacti in late afternoon sun. |
The garden has a very rich history. Starting in 1882, it was originally the home and commercial business of an influential local nurseryman. Many of the mature palms and other trees were planted at this time. Over the next sixty years the property had a variety of owners that added their own perspectives to the buildings, the hardscaping, and the gardens. In 1941 the property was purchased by Madame Ganna Walska, a self-made Polish born (1887) opera singer and colorful socialite (six husbands) who traveled extensively in Europe and the United States. Over the next 40 years, until her death in 1984, she devoted much of her energy and wealth into recreating the gardens into a botanical wonderland. Later in life she established the Ganna Walska Lotusland Foundation, to which she left the garden as well as her fortune to maintain it (although the endowment only provides about 50% support, and the remainder must be raised through entrance and membership fees, grants and other fundraising). Today there is a small but dedicated staff of professionals who run the foundation and continue to maintain and improve the garden that was so loved by its primary architect and benefactor. Although elements of the garden are over 125 years old, the garden did not open for public visitation until 1993.
Lotusland is a series of gardens connected by open areas and densely planted pathways. Each of these areas has unique plant material and interesting design characters. Some areas rely primarily on the interest of the plants themselves; others have additional artistic components, such as water features, statuary, or rockwork. Here is an overview.
The gardens are abundantly populated with plants of interesting structure or living design; many are not easily categorized as “tree”, “shrub”, or “flower.” For example, several of the gardens feature plants like cycads, bromeliads, cacti, and succulents. Cycads are ancient cone-bearing plants with fronds, from tropical and subtropical areas. Their overall aspect makes them look like a cross between a fern and a palm tree. The Lotusland Cycad Garden is a very large and dramatic collection of over 700 mature plants representing more than half of the world’s species. Among many highlights are the blue, fiercely-fronded Encephalartos horridus and its relative, E. woodii, which is one of the rarest plants in the world.
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| The Lotusland Cycad Garden. | The rare cycad, Encephalartos woodii. |
Bromeliads are interesting plants in the pineapple and Spanish moss family. Many have foliage of interesting texture and color, and the flowers of many are also colorful. Some grow as epiphytes attached to trees; others are terrestrial. Both lifestyles are represented in the Bromeliad Garden; the epiphytic species growing on native coast live oaks. The garden includes complementary plants such as small palms; one side is bordered by a small grove of ponytail palms with their rotund bases.
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| Bromeliad in bloom. | Ponytail palms, Beaucarnia recurvata. |
Madame Walska had a profound interest in the colors and forms of desert plants which can be found throughout Lotusland, in gardens dedicated to these, or as accent plants in the other gardens. For example, at the edge of the parking area by the house is a small grove of dragon trees, Dracaena draco. And then there is the grouping of large blue-leafed century plants, Agave franzosinii at the edge of the lawn near the house.
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| Dragon trees, Dracaena draco. | Blue-leafed century plant, Agave americana. |
The beds at the front of the house are dominated by columnar cacti and golden barrel cacti, as well as bizarre weeping euphorbias.
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| Beds near house with golden barrel cacti and columnar cacti. | A weeping euphorbia. |
Another unique feature consists of many hanging baskets of the succulent-leafed Sedum morganianum, or burro-tail sedum. These are hanging from the live oak trees in the main lawn area near the house. Each basket has a mesh covering to protect from birds, giving an overall appearance of a jellyfish suspended in water, an appearance emphasized when a breeze blows, making all of the jellyfish sway in unison in the “currents” of air.
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| Live oak in the main lawn area with hanging
baskets. |
Burro-tail sedum, Sedum morganianum |
One side of the main drive to the house features New World cacti while the other side is lined with African euphorbias.
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| A selection of New World cactus on one side of the drive. |
Elsewhere, a drive is lined with aloes and Agave attenuata, with its large, whimsical, looping inflorescence. Aloes are succulent plants native to the drier areas of Africa, Madagascar, and Arabia. They have spectacular flowers in shades of pink, red, orange, and yellow and they are very attractive to hummingbirds. The Aloe Garden has more than 170 kinds, ranging from dwarf species to shrubs to tall trees.
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| Aloes in bloom. | Looping inflorescence of Agave attenuata. |
The Aloe Garden is immediately adjacent to one of two pools on the property, this one a reflecting pond highlighted with several palms, including massive old plants of the Chilean wine palm, Jubaea chilensis. The Succulent Garden contains an eclectic mix of leaf and stem succulents from both the Old World and New. Mexican echeverias stand out, with their symmetrical rosettes in pastel colors, sometimes in mass plantings for emphasis.
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| Chilean wine palms, Jubaea chilensis, overlook the pool. |
Rosettes of Mexican Echeveria species. |
The newest garden is the Cactus Garden. Merritt Dunlap was a close friend to Madame Walska, and his plant passion was columnar cacti. He amassed a huge collection at his home in northern San Diego County. In 2001, over 500 plants, representing over 300 species, were carefully dug and moved to Santa Barbara. Many of these were huge, and required digging with a backhoe and boxing in huge crates to move. Soon, the new garden was under construction, and it opened just a few years ago. The ¾ acre garden is beautifully landscaped with huge basalt boulders and columns. The diversity or colors, shapes, and spines on these plants is amazing, and the flowers can be quite spectacular.
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| Tall blue-stemmed cactus Piloesocereus languinosus in the Cactus Garden. |
Cacti amid the boulders. | A Cleistocactus in full bloom. |
There are several water features in the gardens. The original swimming pool is now the focal point of the Water Garden, featuring Indian lotus, the namesake of Lotusland. Smaller adjacent pools contain water lilies, and bog areas are planted with species such as papyrus. The Japanese Garden includes a beautiful reflecting pond bordered by plantings of Japanese maple, Japanese cyprus, carefully sculpted pines, camellias, and azaleas. Bronze cranes “wading” at the edge of the pool and other hardscaping features identify this as a traditional Japanese garden. The swimming pool is bordered by the Fern Garden, which includes tree ferns, staghorn ferns, and understory species, complemented by accent plants such as begonias and clivias. The Tropical Garden originated with Ganna Walska’s collection of orchid cacti (epiphyllums) growing is baskets hanging from oaks and eucalyptus trees. Gingers and bananas add to the tropical flavor of this garden. The Australian Garden, with eucalyptus and other Australian natives, is adjacent to the Visitor Center. The Orchards, with both subtropical evergreen citrus and deciduous fruit trees, and the Butterfly Garden are both near the house. The Butterfly Garden is planted with many species of flowers that are attractive to both predatory insects that naturally assist with pest management in the gardens, as well as butterflies. The Parterre and Rose Garden are directly behind the house. This area is a series of formal gardens, fountains, and mosaic walkways.
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| The reflecting pond. | Crane statue in the water. | The Japanese Garden. | Tree ferns in the Fern Garden. | Mosaic walkway. |
Nearby is the Topiary Garden which has 26 topiaries of animals, chess pieces, and geometric shapes.
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| The Topiary Garden. | A topiary animal. |
The Topiary Garden also includes a 25 ft diameter horizontal, working clock. Each of the 12 hour segments is planted with a succulent groundcover and adorned with the signs of the zodiac made of copper. A planting that includes bird-of-paradise separates the Topiary Garden from the Orchard. Madame Walska had affection for blue plants, which are scattered throughout the grounds, but are the main subject of the Blue Garden, where can be found a great diversity of plants with blue foliage, from grasses to trees. The walkways here (and elsewhere in the garden) are lined with chunks of translucent blue-green glass, pieces of slag chipped from the glass kilns of a local water bottling plant.
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| The clock in the Topiary Garden. | Scorpio. | Bird of paradise, Strelitzia reginae, in bloom. |
The sculptures, the stonework, the giant clam shells, the chunks of blue glass, the floating jellyfish; these all come together very happily to accent the grand diversity of plants that is Lotusland. But beyond the beauty of the gardens is its function as a repository for unusual plants. The gardens contain almost 3000 permanent plant species from over 190 different plant families. Their collections of lotus, cycads, cacti and other succulents, and other types of plants are some of the best in the country. They are home to critically endangered species. Further, the staff works diligently to conserve the garden’s environment, such as by using alternatives to harsh broad spectrum pesticides.
Lotusland is in a residential area in the foothills just south of Santa Barbara, about an hour north of the northern edge of Greater Los Angeles. There is limited parking and visitation is strictly by appointment. To schedule a visit, call the Visitor Services Office at 805-969-9990. The gardens are almost 40 acres in size, so you probably won't be able to photograph all 3000 species on the tour! Narrated tours are lead by docents in morning and afternoon from mid-February to mid-November. There is a gift shop which features pots, plants, gardening books and supplies, and items unique to Lotusland. Admission is $35 for adults 19 and older, $10 for children age 5 to 18.
– Dan Mahr, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Written with information from Lotusland’s
website, and with the help of the garden’s botanical curator, Virginia Hayes.
All photos by the author.
