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Telling clock time and taming wild animals takes on a whole new signification in the capricious Topiary Garden at Lotusland , situate on a large estate in Santa Barbara , Calif.
An overhead thought of the floral clock . A brick paseo circle the clock and continues to a restored marble fountain , where a low boxwood maze flanks the way of life . Photo by : Bill Dewey .
The topiary fantasyland date back to 1955 , when Madame Ganna Walska , the owner of the estate at the time , engage landscape painting architect Ralph Stevens to create the 25 - foot - diameter flowered clock that serve as the centerpiece of the garden .
Up until the last few years of her living , Madame Ganna Walska was the “ fountainhead gardener ” of Lotusland . She died in 1984 , leaving her garden and her entire estate to the Ganna Walska Lotusland Foundation , to ensure that her legacy would stay on in her gardens .
Madame Walska then begin populate her garden with a menagerie of topiary animals , birds and reptiles she acquired from the Osaki Plant Zoo in Los Angeles . To mingle among them , she tote up elephantine topiary chess pieces and other geometric chassis . Her quirky topiary “ menagerie ” vividly press out her fascination with the complicated relationship between man , flora and animals .
A mythical hippocampus ( half horse , half ocean fiend ) gallops in office among an assortment of geometric topiaries and chess pieces constantly locked on their square toes . Photo by : Barlow .
Built in 1882 , Lotusland is one of the few remaining examples of great American estates constructed in Santa Barbara during the Golden Age . Madame Walska named the property in honor of the consecrated Indian lotus growing in one of the pool on the property . Over the years , many of the original topiary shapes she acquired lost their definition or failed to thrive . In 2000 , the declining Topiary Garden was entirely renovated to copy the original pattern . Today , Lotusland ’s garden clock and topiary epitomize the spectacular features incorporated into American garden estates during the first one-half of the 20th century . Recently , Lotusland receive a $ 1 million gift from an anonymous donor for the determination of creating an endowment fund investment firm to keep up the historic topiary garden in sempiternity .
At the time it was created , the working topiary clock at Ganna Walska Lotusland was the largest in the populace . Each hour on the facial expression of the 25 - foot - dimater clock is signified by a zodiac sign create with low - growing succulents and colored Stone .
Guided tours of Lotusland are uncommitted to the public from mid - February through mid - November . Because Lotusland is a public garden operating in a private residential neighborhood , arriere pensee are call for . “ It ’s easy to impose if you design ahead , ” read Bob Craig , Lotusland ’s managing director of marketing and communications . “ We also let in 5,000 students each year , so every fourth grader in Santa Barbara County gets to see the garden . The vigour of the youngster in the garden is grand . ”
All the topiary are contained in beds neatly butt with low hedges of Eugenia .
For more selective information on scheduling a tour , visitwww.lotusland.org .
