|
Notes |
Completed 1984. Project Description: Madame Walska collected rare and exotic plants and planted them according to her own sense of design and drama. She created a unique densely foliated estate divided into specialty gardens. Many of the plants in her collection have become important horticultural specimens. The estate has recently opened to the public. In about 1942, Walska turned her attentions to the garden which she had purchased the previous year. She hired two landscape architects, Lockwood de Forest and Ralph Stevens to implement her designs. Walska began creating gardens with exotic, fanciful elements: giant clamshells planted with blue cassulas, a topiary menagerie, a clock planted with succulents, and an Elizabethan theater of clipped Monterey cypress. Eventually, she began to express her passion through the plants themselves. With William Paylen, Walska developed a technique for massing shade-tolerant species under ancient California live oaks. In the fern garden, bunches of staghorn ferns that are six feet across hang on chains from the trees. Hundreds of multi-colored bromeliads are planted beneath another oak pavilion. The Blue Garden has Festuca ovina glauca planted beneath blue Brahea armata palms, blue Atlantic cedars, blue spruce, and blue yuccalike Furcraeas. Aloe plants are rarely cultivated for their beauty, yet Walska created one of her signature gardens by setting masses of aloe plants in a dramatic setting. A terra-cotta-colored path winds through mounded hillocks of red and black gravel. In the center lies a shallow horseshoe-shaped pool that is surrounded by abalone shells, which emanate an almost fluorescent glow. Beyond lies a layered forest, fan palms, eucalyptus, and the Santa Ynez Mountains in the distance. The cycad garden was her last work accomplished over a seven year period with assistance from Charles Glass. Walska allowed the stiff fronds of the cycad to create drama for this garden, adding only a winding path and grassy hillocks. Additional highlights include gardens dedicated to: dragon trees, cactus, gabes, bamboo, palms, orchids, water lilies, a Japanese garden, and a bromeliad garden redesigned with the help of Robert Foster. Project History: Walska, born Anna Puacz in Warsaw, married a Russian baron at age 17. During the first half of her life, she collected jewels, furs and haute couture. She married several millionaires and lived a life of extravagant luxury. Walska also tried, unsuccessfully, to become an opera diva. She turned to spiritualists in her searching for a spiritual reality. In about 1940, under the influence of her latest spiritual adviser Theos Barnard, the White Lama, she wrote a 500-page memoir and decided to abandon her former lifestyle. Walska purchased an estate in Montecito in 1941 and married Barher in 1942. The estate which she had purchased was already was rich with exotic plants. Nurseryman Kinton Stevens had been hired in 1885 and had planted trees, palms, subtropical fruits and lotus. Later, Peter Riedel was hired to design the gardens for the Gavit family. In approximately 1917, the Gavit family commissioned the California Spanish house within the garden. Later, they added a one-story addition designed by architect George Washington Smith. Walska's original plan was to turn her home into a retreat house, which she planned to name Tibetland. When Barher's wife and children from a previous marriage surfaced, Walska decided to make gardening her new passion. She named her estate Lotusland. Walska proceeded to invest her fortune in a collection of rare and exotic plants. A great number of these specimens are no longer found in their natural habitat, making this collection a valuable horticultural achievement. Although this garden remained private during Madame Walska's life, it was opened to the public in 1992. Project Location: 695 Ashley Road, Santa Barbara, CA. Size: 37 acres |
