{"id":12237,"date":"2022-05-30T15:11:31","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T22:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=12237"},"modified":"2022-05-30T15:15:13","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T22:15:13","slug":"the-lowdown-on-lotusland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=12237","title":{"rendered":"The Lowdown on Lotusland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montecito\u2019s Eccentric Garden Paradise Comes to Life in New Book<\/b><\/p>\n

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Underneath the canopy of towering dragon trees (Dracaena draco) is a large, candelabrum-shaped Isolatocereus dumortieri as well as eye-catching clusters of golden barrels (Echinocactus grusonii), which were some of Madame Ganna Walska\u2019s favorite cacti. | Credit: \u00a9Lotusland by Rizzoli, New York, 2022. Image \u00a9Lisa Romerein<\/p><\/div>\n

Show business ran deep through the veins of Madame Ganna Walska<\/a>, so when the time finally came to showcase her legendary garden in book form, the pressure was on.<\/span><\/p>\n

And like the creation of Montecito\u2019s extraordinary 37-acre public garden extravaganza, it took a whole cast of characters to bring the new, 288-page coffee table book <\/span>Lotusland: Eccentric Garden Paradise <\/span><\/i><\/a>(Rizzoli, 2022) \u2014 stunningly photographed by Lisa Romerein \u2014 to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Architect Marc Appleton<\/a>, a longtime supporter and former trustee of Ganna Walska Lotusland, had unsuccessfully tried to drum up support for a book project for years, but the stars never quite aligned until 2019, when the \u201cBook Committee\u201d \u2014 comprised of Appleton, current trustee Dorothy Gardner and former trustees Suzanne Mathews and Alex Morse \u2014 was formed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lotusland is sited on a gently sloping hill and spans 37 acres. With the area\u2019s coastal Mediterranean climate \u2014 and almost 300 days of sunshine per year \u2014 the property has been a testing ground for experimenting with new types of tropical and subtropical plants since 1882. | Credit: \u00a9Lotusland by Rizzoli, New York, 2022. Illustrated by Janice Blair<\/p><\/div>\n

The county permit limits the number of visitors to the garden to just 15,000 people a year, so it\u2019s always a challenge to share Lotusland with as many people as possible<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe raised independent funds from subscribers to establish a publication budget, and we were off and running,\u201d said Appleton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone said yes, which is kind of remarkable and a testament to their relationships. It really was volunteer driven and that\u2019s important to appreciate and highlight,particularly in this town where so many volunteers do so much,\u201d said Executive Director Rebecca Anderson.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Curator Paul Mills, Historian Rose Thomas, Jeff Chemnick, Mike Furner, Corey Welles, Founding Trustee Arthur Gaudi, Eric Nagelmann (who designed the cactus garden) and Madame Walska\u2019s niece Hania Tallmadge (who recently passed away) were but a few of the many people involved in this team effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book has a lot of ground to cover \u2014\u00a0and it does. Anderson explained, \u201cwhile it\u2019s meant to focus on the garden today and our future, it\u2019s meant to be a garden book. It\u2019s not meant to be a retrospective of how the garden began. But I really appreciate that we were able to get in there the people who created this place because without a little bit of that it\u2019s not a complete story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed the dramatic flair and inimitable spirit of of Madame Walska is woven throughout the book and the world-renowned horticultural showplace, which is home to more than 3,400 types of plants, including at least 35,000 individual specimens,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another important factor Anderson emphasized is \u201cmaking sure that people not only have takeaways about inspiration and ideas for design or knowledge of particular plants in that index in the back but also that they understand that this is all done with<\/span><\/p>\n

organic materials and sustainable practices.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With such a large scope of the gardens to be documented, Curator Paul Mills worked with photographer Lisa Romerein and her assistant Dean Courtois to shoot over the span of a year, \u201cto try to catch as many moods and happenings in the garden as possible.\u201d Mills said, \u201cLotusland really is not a \u2018flowery\u2019 garden, it\u2019s more about bold and dramatic presentation of plants. But each season does present different opportunities to capture and I would help guide them to these.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Madame Ganna Walska picks fruit from the lemon arbor, c. 1958 | Credit: J. R. Eyerman, Ganna Walska. Lotusland Archives<\/p><\/div>\n

He continued, \u201cEvery plant on the property has a story, but I would try to lead them to the ones that are more intriguing for one reason or another \u2013 a cycad that is now extinct in the wild and only exists in gardens like Lotusland, a dragon tree that dates back to the 1880\u2019s when Kinton Stevens had his nursery on the property, a cactus that is endemic to the Galapagos Islands and rarely seen in botanical collections. The first shoot was in summer, so the main goal was to catch our namesake plant, the sacred lotus, in all its glory. Winter had to focus on the Aloe garden because that is when those plants light up with their torch-like inflorescences and also on the Japanese garden which really shows that season with the golden carpet of Ginkgo leaves and shapely, dormant maples. I would scout the garden before their arrival but so many times we would just happen across things \u2013 a flowering bromeliad, a fern leaf unfurling or the perfect lighting for an overall shot.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With 19 distinct gardens to spotlight, choosing a favorite is like choosing a favorite child, but when asked which section of the book he\u2019s most proud of, Mills confided, \u201cI would have to say the chapter on the Dunlap cactus garden. It\u2019s my favorite garden on the property, not only because I was so involved in moving the collection to Lotusland and helping to oversee its installation, but because of the story behind it. Lisa was also very drawn to this garden so it got a lot of attention and amazing photos in the book<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cWe\u2019d often be on the cart heading to a different garden, passing by the Dunlap garden, and Lisa would shout, \u2018Stop!\u2019 because she saw something looking just right. This garden was installed after Madame Ganna Walska had passed away, but the project actually started in 1966, when Merritt \u2018Sigs\u2019 Dunlap wrote to her wanting to bequeath his cactus collection to Lotusland. She saw this as something great and accepted. Luckily Sigs turned it into a donation and we moved the collection in 2001 and built the garden in 2003 where he celebrated his 97<\/span>th<\/span> birthday. We know Madame Ganna Walska would approve of this garden \u2013 she loved cacti and dramatic landscapes and its completion signified the fulfillment of her and Sigs\u2019 wish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Credit: \u00a9Lotusland by Rizzoli, New York, 2022<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMaking the book happen in the right way was challenging, and there were ultimately a lot of interests to entertain along the way, ” said Appleton, who worked on a somewhat similar project with Rizzoli for Casa Del Herrero in 2009, and wrote the introduction to <\/span>Lotusland<\/span><\/i>. \u201cBut I think the book will have a long life as a fairly comprehensive presentation of Lotusland and\u00a0 why it is such a special garden. Lisa’s photos are amazing, and capture its magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Limited spots are available for a Luncheon on the Lawn to celebrate <\/span>Lotusland: Eccentric Garden Paradise <\/span><\/i>on Saturday, May 21 at 11:30 a.m.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition,Lotusland\u2019s 2022 season is now open to reservations through August. <\/span>Admission is $50 for adults and $25 for children ages 3 to 17. <\/span>For more information and reservations, visit lotusland.org.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lotusland: Eccentric Garden Paradise<\/span><\/i> is available at local retailers as well as through the onsite gift shop and online at lotuslandshop.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Santa Barbara Independent, May 19-25, 2002. ON THE COVER: Madame Ganna Walska, taken c. 1958. Photo by J.R. Eyerman\/Lotus- land Archives. Design by Ava Talehakimi.<\/p><\/div>\n

Originally published in the May 19-25 issue issue of the Santa Barbara Independent<\/em><\/a>. To see the story as it originally appeared click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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