A Monument to Madame
In LOTUSLAND Ganna Walska created a world-renowned horticultural treasure
Text and images excerpted from Lotusland: Eccentric Garden Paradise (Rizzoli New York) | Photography by Lisa Romerein
How do you describe Lotusland? Exquisite garden, conservation center, the botanical expression of an exuberant and idiosyncratic personality…it is all that and more. For almost thirty years visitors have had the privilege of exploring this natural sanctuary, wandering the paths that showcase the incredible variety of the collection, from the majestic palms and ancient dragon trees to the prickly array of cacti and the shadowy elegance of the Japanese Garden. Lotusland changes with the seasons and has evolved gradually with the decades, but the allure of this incredible estate never lessens. It remains a tribute to the extraordinary woman who brought the place to life. Joan Tapper
Ganna Walska Lotusland, a thirty-seven-acre oasis located in Montecito, California, is considered to be among the most significant botanic gardens in the world. Home to more than 3,400 types of plants, including at least 35,000 specimens, it is recognized not just for the breadth and diversity of its collections, but for the extraordinary design sensibility informing the many one-of-a-kind individual gardens that comprise its cohesive, harmonious, magical whole.
Madame Walska’s maximalist ethos is part of what makes Lotusland so unique.
As delightfully pleasing as its aesthetic and sensory qualities are, Lotusland is also an important center for plant research and conservation.
Lotusland opened its gates to the public in 1993, nine years after the death of the estate’s owner Ganna Walska, referred to by all as “Madame.” She was an adventurous, inquisitive, and charismatic spiritual seeker who lived a life of legend. Born Hanna Puacz in Brest-Litvosk, Poland, in 1887, she eloped with a Russian baron in 1907 at age twenty. After changing her name in 1914, Madame Walska, as she was now known, moved to New York and in the ensuing years shuttled between New York and Paris, performing as an opera singer and marrying five more times after the baron’s death.
Already a student of yoga, astrology, meditation, telepathy, numerology, Christian Science, and Rosicrucianism, around 1933 Madame Walska embarked on her search for the “great purpose” of her life, studying hypnotism and Indian philosophies. Her studies led her to meet Theos Bernard, a similarly charismatic individual and yogi who was one of the earliest, and most famous, proponents of Hatha yoga in the West.
Unlike a traditional museum, Lotusland’s living collections are ever changing and ever evolving.
Bernard became Walska’s final husband in 1942. The previous year, Walska purchased the property then known as Cuesta Linda, which they intended to serve as a retreat for Tibetan lamas: together, they renamed it Tibetland. Alas, World War II scuttled their plans to bring the lamas to America, and in 1946 Walska and Bernard divorced. Madame promptly renamed the estate Lotusland after the sacred aquatic plant that flourished there.
Immediately after acquiring the land in 1941, Madame Walska hired the renowned landscape architect Lockwood de Forest, Jr. to renovate the orchards and create a number of individual garden spaces on the property. Following de Forest’s deployment to World War II in 1943, Ralph Stevens, son of the property’s garden original owners and then the Santa Barbara Parks Superintendent came on board, and over the next decade he, alongside Madame Walska, developed many of Lotusland’s iconic landscape features.
Over the course of forty-plus years, the once-native land that had been home to a commercial nursery for its initial use was transformed into a garden paradise full of staggering natural wonders. Madame Walska led by instinct and with a passion for the best (and most!) collectable plants on the planet. She sought out, consulted, and engaged the best experts in their fields to help shape and realize her vision for Lotusland, but it was always her distinctive vision. Her maximalist ethos, typified by signature gestures such as the profuse grouping of single specimens, the assemblage of massive varieties of plant families, and the deployment of extravagant, dramatic gestures, is part of what makes Lotusland so unique among botanic gardens throughout the world. Eye-catching and unorthodox garden adornments, such as large chunks of colored glass, gems and minerals, and giant clam shells, appear in the landscape and contribute to the estate’s visual excitement.
And yet, unlike a traditional museum with static installations, Lotusland’s living collections are ever changing and ever evolving. Plants mature, plants die. Room has to be made for exciting and scientifically more important new additions. Since the late 1990s, the garden’s living collections have grown significantly, and several gardens have been restored and reimagined to support their function in this now public garden. Today, the goal of its stewards is to preserve and enhance the historic estate and gardens of Madame Ganna Walska, and to develop conservation and sustainable horticulture programs that educate and inspire, while advancing global understanding and appreciation of plants and environmental responsibility.
