Lotus

We went to Lotusland in Santa Barbara with my watercolor class. (It was even hot and very humid by the beach!) Lotusland is a 37 acre botanical garden with an amazing collection of unique plantings. The home and gardens were created in the 1920's by it's owner, Madame Ganna Walska. The acreage is divided into peaceful garden rooms with anything from the lotus flowers, to cactus, bromeliads, ferns, succulents, aloes, cycads (The sego palm is a cycad, who knew!), and even a grass covered ampitheater were she would perform her opera singing. Japanese and European staturary accents are found throughout the property. After Madame death, in 1984 the property became a nonprofit educational institution and opened to the public in 1993. This was our first visit. I'm told the cactus gardens are splendid in Feburary. www.lotusland.org will take you to their web site.