The lotus are in bloom this week. These were found in the Japanese garden.
The former estate of Ganna Walska, a beloved Polish opera singer and socialite, Lotusland boasts more than 3,000 species of plants, many of them rare or endangered. It’s arguably the most exclusive admission in Montecito, accessible by reservation only, with a strictly regulated ticketing policy. If you have the US$60 basic charge and can arrange a spot, a walk through the 37-acre garden overwhelms. It’s even better with a docent to explain the history and biographical proclivities of ‘Madame’.
Independently wealthy and deliriously eccentric (she was married four times), Ganna Walska originally purchased the estate for her yoga instructor, the story goes. But by the time she resettled here she’d become a Buddhist, and planned to make Lotusland a retreat for Tibetan monks. That never happened either. Instead the site became one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world, a haven of biodiversity and guardianship. Lotusland’s archive of plants and seeds is also a working laboratory, all-organic and sustainable. In 2024 it received the prestigious Jean and John Greene Prize for Excellence in the Field of American Gardening from the Garden Conservancy.
You will discover a wealth of themed gardens (Japanese, Bromeliads, cyprus, palms, cactus, succulents) and architectural details. We love the variety of ceramics, stone work, water features, sightlines and sculptural discoveries. One also senses the oversized personality of Madame Ganna Walska which shaped this remarkable place. It is said that she ordered plants she liked by the dozen, famously remarking, ‘Why have one or five or ten specimens of a cactus when you can have a hundred?’
This vast planting was once the estate’s swimming pool.
A fully opened lotus flower.
A lotus seed pod.
Long sightline extending beyond a lemon-scented pergola.
‘Why have one or five or ten specimens of a cactus when you can have a hundred?’
A wall of Delft tiles from Ganna Walska’s collection.
Many concrete benches with tile surfaces like those seen in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.
Tile detail (Spanish?) from a patio adjoining the Main House.
Many planters are edged with decorative chunks of slag glass, donated in the 1950s by the local Coca-Cola bottler.
A small garden features only varieties of endangered palms.
Sunlight illuminates a giant palm leaf.
Visit Lotusland at www.lotusland.org.
Stanley Moss is travel editor of Lucire.
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