The Lowdown on Lotusland

Montecito’s Eccentric Garden Paradise Comes to Life in New Book

By Leslie Dinaberg | May 19, 2022

Underneath the canopy of towering dragon trees (*Dracaena draco*) is a large, candelabrum-shaped *Isolatocereus dumortieri* as well as eye-catching clusters of golden barrels (*Echinocactus grusonii*), which were some of Madame Ganna Walska’s favorite cacti. | Credit: ©*Lotusland* by Rizzoli, New York, 2022. Image ©Lisa Romerein

Show business ran deep through the veins of Madame Ganna Walska, so when the time finally came to showcase her legendary garden in book form, the pressure was on.

And like the creation of Montecito’s extraordinary 37-acre public garden extravaganza, it took a whole cast of characters to bring the new, 288-page coffee-table book Lotusland: Eccentric Garden Paradise (Rizzoli, 2022) — stunningly photographed by Lisa Romerein — to life.

It’s always been a desire to share Lotusland with as many people as possible, a challenge because the county permit limits the number of visitors to the garden to just 15,000 people a year. Architect Marc Appleton, a longtime supporter and former trustee of Ganna Walska Lotusland, had unsuccessfully tried to drum up support for a book project for years. But the stars never quite aligned until 2019, when the “Book Committee” was formed, with current trustee Dorothy Gardner and former trustees Suzanne Mathews and Alex Morse joining Appleton.