![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/june2015venturasbtrip\/1-_MG_1830.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
The Eureka lemon tree arbor, planted in 1988, is probably one of the more sedate and traditional features of Lotusland.
\nThis arbor might be a good place to start, showing as it does how Ganna Walska had absorbed the principles of the many formal gardens she knew from Europe.
\nDisappointed in love, and knowing an allee from an arbor, she came to California in her fifties ready to create a bold, brave garden unlike any before it. Or since, for that matter.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/june2015venturasbtrip\/1-_MG_1835.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
The garden had experienced a rare June rainstorm, receiving .6 inches just before my visit.
\nThe buffs, tans, dark greens, bright yellows and greys were especially vivid under an overcast sky and cleansed of accumulated grime. <\/p>\n
![\"the](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/june2015venturasbtrip\/1-_MG_1833.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
I’ve delayed posting on this visit, hoping to find and read her memoir “Always Room at the Top” before I do.
\nWritten before she made Lotusland, I’m not sure what insights the account of her six husbands and minor opera career would reveal about her character that her garden doesn’t.<\/p>\n
This article<\/a> by The Los Angeles Times<\/em> from 2005 is one of the best background pieces I’ve read on her.<\/p>\n <\/center><\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since I snapped hundreds, I’ll probably be trickling out photos of my June visit to Lotusland for months to come. The Eureka lemon tree arbor, planted in 1988, is probably one of the more sedate and traditional features of Lotusland. … Continue reading