Weekend Escape: Santa Barbara : Cultivating a Lotusland state of mind

Visiting Lotusland’s gardens means journeying back to a time when a woman’s best shot at amassing a fortune came from marrying the right man. Or, in the case of Polish opera singer Madame Ganna Walska, marrying six of them.

The 37-acre estate garden, nestled into the hills of Montecito, is as exotic and eccentric as its late mistress, who fled her Russian count husband to marry a New York psychiatrist, and continued to rush from one man’s arms to another’s until she landed in Southern California.

After a dizzying array of romances and a less than dazzling career as an opera singer, Walska settled into her estate in 1941, eventually giving it the name it bears today: Lotusland, a collection of gardens of bold contrasts and rich whimsy. And the perfect centerpiece for a weekend in Santa Barbara.

My friend and I left downtown on a steamy summer Friday night after work and 90 minutes later reached Montecito, where a gentle breeze wafted off the ocean. It was my first visit to Santa Barbara, home to numerous gardens and parks often overlooked in beachcombers’ zeal for the coast.

We checked into the Coast Village Inn, where the small rooms are modestly appointed but terrifically situated in the center of town, and it had the necessary amenities (packets of wipes to remove beach tar). Be forewarned, however, an “ocean view” refers to something in the far distance.

Eager to stretch our legs, we strolled to Tutti’s on Coast Village Road for a late--and delicious--dinner of chicken stuffed with herbs and citrus, and roasted garlic topped with baked Brie.

We set off Saturday morning in search of Santa Barbara’s most famous tree, a Moreton Bay fig (at Montecito and Chapala streets). At the end of sun-drenched Stearns Wharf, we devoured overpriced peel-and-eat shrimp, then wended our way inland toward the estate, where we joined our party of 10 just in time for the 1:30 tour (tours run 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday).

Because of county land-use restrictions, Lotusland is limited to 7,500 visitors for the year, and officials suggest making reservations two months in advance (the gardens are open mid-February to mid-November). Because members of Lotusland get priority for the docent-led tours, I had purchased a membership in order to obtain the weekend of my choice.

The two-hour tour begins by the driveway’s iron gates, which are in the shape of a lotus bud opening. After Walska died in 1984 at age 97, her estate was turned over to a nonprofit foundation that runs the tours and, with 13 gardeners, maintains the grounds. First stop: the Japanese garden, which seems like a curious choice for a new landowner during World War II, when so many others were demolishing their Japanese gardens in a patriotic fever. But clearly, Walska--whom our docent described as a short, large-busted woman with a penchant for long strands of pearls--put little stock in convention.

The estate is divvied up into 15 different gardens, including one with more than 130 species of aloe. Many of the exotic trees and palms were planted in 1882 by the estate’s first owner, nursery operator R. Kinton Stevens. As a result, behemoth Chilean wine palms, planted more than 100 years ago, tower next to blue Atlas cedars.

Like most gardens, this one affords an intimate peek into the world of its idiosyncratic owner. Not too many people would convert their main swimming pool into a murky home for Egyptian lotus and water lilies, or sell their jewels to create a garden of cycads. Cantaloupe-size chunks of green glass edge the paths that wend through the estate. A four-tiered theater garden is peopled by short, squat 18th-Century sculptures that look like creatures from “Alice in Wonderland.” Huge abalone shells, yawning open, line a moon-blue C-shaped pool.

Something about a socialite opera singer made me think Walska would plant scads of pretty, fragrant flowers. Wrong. Walska, our docent told us, didn’t much care for flowers, though she did like geraniums, begonias, and, of course, the lotus, which has a huge exotic pink flower that blooms through September.

Instead, Walska selected a series of almost sculpturesque plantings, such as the marvelous dragon trees, whose thick thigh-size branches create a dense umbrella overhead and look like they popped out of a Dr. Seuss book. Or, the deep-green Euphorbia ingens that reach the roof of the two-story pink stucco mansion, and then cascade to the ground.

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Only minutes but a world away from Lotusland is the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden on Mission Canyon Road. These heavily wooded 65 acres prove the perfect foil for Walska’s well-manicured gardens.

We rented bikes on Sunday and joined the throngs on the bicycle path, which hugs the coast for much of the 3 1/2 miles to the Biltmore hotel. It’s a lovely, mostly flat ride. On our return, we stopped for brunch on East Cabrillo Boulevard at the restaurant Citronelle, which has a spectacular view of the ocean-- really-- as well as bike racks in the garage. The sea bass served on a bed of chopped, marinated asparagus was nothing short of spectacular. And the crab cakes, garnished with a creamy French cocktail sauce, were delicious.

Having just survived the Altadena wildfires, we stopped across the street from Fire Station No. 7, by the 1.7-acre Firescape, which showcases fire-resistant plantings. We also checked out the fragrant A.C. Postel Memorial Rose Garden, across the lawn from Mission Santa Barbara. From there we trundled off to the attractive 4.6-acre Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden (at Garden and Micheltorena streets), settling down with books to enjoy the late afternoon.

By the time we departed Santa Barbara late Sunday, I had only one question: Why don’t I live here?

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Budget for Two

Coast Village Inn, two nights: $211.50

Lotusland membership (includes admission passes): 40.00

Botanical Gardens admission: 3.00

Dinner, Tutti’s: 47.07

Shrimp snack, Stearns Wharf: 6.10

Lunch, Montecito Wine & Bistro: 22.00

Dinner, Acacia: 52.80

Brunch, Citronelle: 45.87

Bike rentals: 24.00

FINAL TAB: $452.34

The Coast Village Inn, 1188 Coast Village Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108; tel. (800) 257-5131. Lotusland, Tour Reservations, 695 Ashley Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108; tel. (805) 969-9990.