Lotusland
| Lotusland | |
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Lotus plants at Lotusland
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Location of Lotusland in California
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| Type | Botanical garden |
| Location | Montecito, California |
| Coordinates | 34°26′35″N 119°39′25″W / 34.4430°N 119.6570°WCoordinates: 34°26′35″N 119°39′25″W / 34.4430°N 119.6570°W |
| Area | 37 acres (15 ha; 0.058 sq mi) |
Ganna Walska Lotusland, also known as Lotusland, is a non-profit botanical garden located in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, California, United States. The (15 ha / 37 acres) garden is the historic estate of Madame Ganna Walska. The County of Santa Barbara restricts visitation via a conditional use permit: Lotusland botanic garden is open to the public by advance reservation only, with walking tours 1½ to 2 hours long.
Ralph Kinton Stevens purchased the land in 1882; he and his wife, Caroline Lucy Tallant, named the property "Tanglewood". They established a lemon and palm nursery and eventually added other tropical plants to the collection and were among the early plantsmen of Santa Barbara.
In 1916 the estate was sold to the Gavit family, from Albany, New York, who renamed it "Cuesta Linda". They added landscape elements, garden structures, and the main residence designed in 1919 by Reginald Johnson in the Mediterranean Revival style. In 1921–1927 they commissioned additional landcape buildings and alterations to the residence in the Spanish Colonial Revival style from George Washington Smith. His work includes the water garden pool house and the distinctive pink walls of the estate.
The gardens were created over four decades by opera singer Madame Ganna Walska, who owned the property as a private residence from 1941 until her death in 1984. She was assisted in landscape planning and garden design by Peter Riedel, Ralph Stevens, Lockwood DeForest, and Joseph Knowles. The garden was opened to the public in 1993.
The Lotusland estate grounds contain several distinct gardens, including:
Featuring plants with silvery to blue-gray foliage, including Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus libani var. atlantica 'Glauca'), Chilean wine palms (Jubaea chilensis), blue fescue (Festuca ovina var. glauca), Senecio mandraliscae, Mexican blue palm (Brahea armata), Queensland kauri (Agathis robusta), bunya-bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) and two camphor trees (Cinnamomum camphora).
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Wikipedia