Another trip to Lotusland, July 9, 2010

[Mark]

Another trip to Lotusland, July 9, 2010

11 Jul '10 3:58 pm

[To find out more about Lotusland try googling it.] Quite a story about how Madam Ganna Walska became an opera diva to gain the notice of a gentleman who would be one of several she married on her way to collecting a fortune with which she bought a huge estate near Santa Barbara California which long ago housed an exotics nursery. I have a hard time categorizing her garden. I'm used to dividing gardens up as ones which are made by the gardener who lives there, or, one which was made by a designer and installed and then maintained by hired help. This garden was designed and installed by an army of 15 gardeners plus an inhouse arborist and other specialists but each one was directed in his work exclusively by the Madam. They say when she was laid up for most of a year, she gave specific directions that none of them was to do anything until she returned. Sound like a hard life? Nonetheless, if she made all the choices then I'd have to say it was/is her garden, a gardener's garden -albeit a separate sub-category from the kind that you and I make.\

This was our second visit and by far superior to the first even thought the light was so much worse, overcast nearly all day. This time our guide (yes, they're required) was a former gardener. She took us on an ambitious path, keeping us moving briskly along when we weren't ogling the place with our jaws agape. She was covered the Madam in a cursory way but kept the focus on the gardens and the plants, of which she was very knowledgeable. Like I say the light was poor but here is what I was able to get.

Oh drat - I still can't upload photos at this forum for some reason. MOOSEY or EGGY? Can you give me the "upload photos" option on this forum instead of the "poll creation" option? Meanwhile, I've just copied this text along with the photos I would've loaded here to a site called the Garden Geek. I've kept the photos the same size I would've loaded here.) Hopefully this connector will work:

http://thegardengeek.com/node/93420?album=1