Lotusland - a sustainable garden and more sustainable projects

Lotusland is the realized dream of an extraordinary woman, Mme. Ganna Walska. Ganna Walska was a Poles, a beautiful opera singer who enchanted 5 husbands, four of them very rich. Ganna Walska used the money from her marriages and her fabulous collection of jewels  to create one of the first sustainable gardens in the U.S.

She was mad about cactus and succulents before the rest of us had given them a thought. She sold a million dollars worth of jewels to create the Cycad garden which is unrivalled of it's kind. She had her clothes designed by Erte'. ( See Erte's Theatrical Costumes )  She designed both  herself  and her garden to  her own standards with enormous confidence and panache. Everywhere you turn in Lotusland, there's a wonderful story attached to the garden you are looking at.

(All the photo's are from the Lotusland brochure and literature)

Ganna Walska  had beauty, brains, taste, courage and luck . See the picture below of the koi pond. Mme. wanted some fish for her pond; she thought koi looked pretty, so she ordered a number of them. When she received the bill, she was horrified, having no thought of paying thousands for some pretty fish. "Send them back!" So, the koi were returned to the koi farm......but while they were swimming in Ganna Walska's lovely pond, they had spawned. Mme. had a fine hatch of baby koi--- free.

Stay tuned for the next episode on Lotusland.