WILLIAM. M. DEWEY
What was once a swimming pool is now part of a major water garden on the grounds of Lotusland in Montecito. Behind the pond is the original bath house.
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Santa Barbara is known as "America's Riviera" because of balmy weather, wide sun-drenched sandy beaches and picturesque Mediterranean-style villas and estates.
It also is newly famous for an equally picturesque wine country north of the city limits, which was captured in the hit movie "Sideways."
Sun seekers and oenophiles, who also are garden lovers, will find a trip to these environs particularly rewarding. Santa Barbara and adjacent Montecito offer an assortment of wonderful gardens open to the public.
Start at Casa del Herrero in Montecito to view an elaborate and exquisitely maintained Spanish/Mediterranean garden from the 1920s. Nearby is Lotusland, a fabled, one-of-a-kind estate with an eclectic plant collection.
In Santa Barbara are two public gardens worth viewing: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden showcasing rare and indigenous California plants, and the A.C. Postel Rose Garden near the historic Santa Barbara Mission.
Here's a preview of each.
Casa del Herrero
Located on a historic, 11-acre Montecito estate, this lovely landscape evokes a Spanish/Moorish garden, in keeping with the estate's distinctive Moorish architecture and furnishings.
Casa del Herrero means house of the blacksmith, so named by George Fox Steedman, who amassed a fortune in the foundry and manufacturing business and enjoyed metal smithing as a hobby. With his wife, Carrie, they created their Casa, famed as one of the best examples of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, and surrounded it with elaborate and elegant gardens.
An event in San Diego may have played a role in the design. The 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park ignited a passion for Spanish
Colonial Revival architecture. Swept up by the fashion, in 1922, the Steedman's hired architect George Washington Smith to design an authentic Spanish Casa on the site of what had been an old Spanish land grant.
One of Santa Barbara's best-known landscape architects, Ralph Stevens, planned the initial garden rooms, which another well-known landscape architect, Lockwood de Forest, completed.
The Steedmans traveled to Spain to collect art and antiques to furnish the Casa and the gardens, which evolved over a 20-year period. After the passing of the Steedmans (George in 1940 and Carrie in 1962), one of their daughters, Medora Steedman Bass, lived at the Casa until her death in 1986.
Fulfilling her wish that the estate be preserved intact, the family transferred the estate and its contents to the Casa del Herrero Foundation that manages it now. Public tours, by reservation only, permit visitors to view the fully furnished estate, workshop and gardens. Tours last 90 minutes and cost $15 per person.
Casa del Herrero
Spanish-tiled fountains and walls in Casa del Herrero's gardens complement the Spanish/Moorish architecture of the historic Montecito estate home.
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Several mature trees, including avocado, coast live oak, coast redwood, Southern magnolia and Senegal date palm (Phoenix reclinata) line the entry drive. The garden visit starts in the front courtyard, enclosed by white walls and containing a Spanish-tiled fountain and black-and-white-pebbled pavement, evoking the Patio de la Reja in The Alhambra in Spain. Pindo palm trees (Butia capitata) flank each side of the entrance gate. Massive birds of paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) rim the west wall.
Designed so each room in the house has a garden view, the landscape surrounds the house in a series of rooms, some enclosed by walls, others reached by lawn and paths.
A wrought-iron gate leads from the east court to the camellia alee, with statues at either end. Passing through a lower camellia garden, visitors enter a formal garden consisting of a narrow lawn bordered by beds of perennials dominated by shades of blue and white. Calla lilies, heliotrope, Shasta daisies and Japanese anemones grow behind lines of agapanthus. Chinese holly (Ilex cornuta), orange trees, pink and star jasmine, French lavender and Iceberg roses are included in this densely planted garden.
From here, stairs descend to a lovely rose garden filled with more than 50 hybrid tea standards (tree roses). Many were hybridized in the last two decades, like Secret, Opening Night, Barbara Bush and Prospero. Some are older favorites, like Peace, Bewitched, and Mister Lincoln.
The path leads to a pergola and then through arches of the walled garden, with a central fountain and geometric beds.
From the center of the house, a lawn is ornamented by a tiled star water feature, a birdhouse and sundial. Eugenia hedges, bordered with bands of ivy and scallops of star jasmine, lead to the fern garden and its fountain. Steps lead to a small walled garden containing ferns, fuchsias and camellias.
Beyond this garden is a cactus garden filled with aloes, euphorbia, yucca, and aeoniums. A majestic dragon tree (Dracaena draco) is the dominant plant.
Edible plants are also abundant at Casa del Herrero. Several orchards contain citrus, stone fruit and nut trees. An herb garden is in a courtyard near the kitchen.
Lotusland
Another historic garden nearby is Lotusland, a great garden whose influence extends beyond its 37-acres. Garden lovers can marvel at fascinating landscape design and rare plants in unusual combinations. It's unlike any other garden in America, perhaps even the world, because of the flamboyantly bold forms, unusual color combinations and types of plants in the collections.
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Seeing Santa Barbara's gardens
 Casa del Herrero, 1387 East Valley Road, Montecito, CA 93108; (805) 565-5653 or www.casadelherrero.com. Tours by reservation only. Admission is $15 per person.
Lotusland, address provided at time of reservation confirmation; (805) 969-9990. Tours by reservation only, available 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, mid-February through mid-November. Admission is $15 for adults and kids 10 and older; $8 for kids under 10; kids under 2 are free.
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 1212 Mission Canyon Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; (805) 682-4726 or www.sbbg.org. Open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., March through October. Garden closes one hour earlier November through February. Admission: $7 for adults; $5 for seniors; $4 for college students, military and kids ages 13-17; $1 for kids 5-12; kids under 5 are free.
A.C. Postel Memorial Rose Garden, 555 Plaza Rubio, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, is near the Santa Barbara Mission. Garden is not enclosed so is always open, free of charge. For details, see www.sbrose.org.
- KAREN DARDICK
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Pioneer nurseryman R. Kenton Stevens, who planted palms, exotic trees and other subtropical plants on the site when he established his nursery in 1882, originally created the gardens. At that time, the site was named "Tanglewood" because of the many oak trees and shrubby undergrowth on the property. Many of the original plantings remain, including an extensive collection of more than 100 varieties of palm trees, many now endangered in their native habitats.
The gardens have undergone several major transformations during the evolution to its current condition. In the early 1900s, E. Palmer Gavit and his wife acquired the site and hired local expert Peter Riedel to transform the former nursery into gardens.
A pink Spanish tile and stucco house, designed in 1919 by Reginald Johnson, was later remodeled by the celebrated Santa Barbara architect George Washington Smith, who also designed the swimming pool, bathhouse and pink perimeter wall that remains a landmark. The Spanish-looking estate was named "Cuesta Linda."
In 1941, the flamboyant and famous Polish opera singer Madame Ganna Walska purchased the estate and put her mark on it over a span of 40 years. She renamed it "Lotusland," regarded it as her spiritual retreat from the world, and lived there until her death in 1984. She established the Ganna Walska Lotusland Foundation to maintain her beloved creation and open it for public visits, on a limited basis.
Lotusland consists of 22 distinct garden rooms. Madame Walska was the spirit behind the design and supervised every aspect. As she modified the existing gardens, she consulted two of the region's most famous landscape architects, Lockwood de Forest and Ralph T. Stevens (son of R. Kenton Stevens).
During the 1950s and 1960s, she consulted expert horticulturists when she wanted to showcase her increasing botanical collections of aloes, bromeliads, cycads, cactuses and succulents. In addition to the palm collection on site when Madame Walska purchased the property, Lotusland is renowned for its collection of cycads, ancient plants that are a cross between a palm and a conifer. This valuable collection includes some species that are extinct in the wild. It's reputed that Walska sold her diamond and emerald jewelry to purchase cycads.
Lotusland is also famous for sculptural plants, like the dramatic plantings of cactuses and euphorbia growing to rooftops in front of the main residence (now used as offices by the Foundation). Many are displayed in garden rooms as bold and daring as this eccentric woman who married and outlived six wealthy husbands.
The Blue Garden contains only trees and foliage plants with hues of blue/green foliage, including a grove of blue Atlas cedars, blue spruce and Mexican blue palms. Blue fescue grass covers the ground, and the winding path is lined with pieces of slag glass used in making Coca-Cola bottles.
Abalone shells border an abalone pond, each placed in groupings to create the image of a lotus unfurled. A path leads to the aloe garden containing hundreds of different kinds. This garden is unusual because of the large numbers of aloes on display and their massive groupings.
Walska also added an outdoor theater where various musical performances were staged among the tightly manicured hedges. Vying for attention are grotesque dwarf figures of men and women in 18th-century garb transported from her French chateau.
DON MATSUMOTO
Artist Patrick Dougherty's whimsical willow structure Toad Hall graces the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden's signature wildflower meadow.
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Although Walska spent considerable money and effort creating these complex and daring gardens, she also had several with traditional, formal landscape designs. A parterre adjacent to the rear of the main residence leads to a topiary garden, in which she had created a massive floral clock that actually functions. A conventional fruit orchard is adjacent to the parterre. A great swath of lawn near the house is the only green meadow on the property.
Devotees of more traditional gardens will enjoy strolling the meandering shore of a lake that forms the heart of the 5-acre Japanese garden, containing flowering cherry trees, bonsai shrubs and an impressive collection of Japanese lanterns, statues and other garden adornments. Each turn of the path leads the viewer to yet another visual delight, such as the authentic Shinto shrine nestled among the Japanese cedar trees.
Guided walking tours of Ganna Walska Lotusland occur mid-February through mid-November Wednesday through Saturday. Tours are available by reservation only, and are usually filled well in advance because of parking restrictions. To schedule a tour, phone (805) 969-9990.
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
For a completely different garden experience, one focused on native plants, experience the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.
Located in the foothills of the Santa Ysidro mountains, it began in 1926 with 13 acres dedicated to native plants. Now it encompasses 78 acres containing more than 1,000 species of California native plants, some quite rare.
Paths lead past chaparral, meadows and canyons, through a redwood forest and across historic Mission dam. Adventurous visitors can climb to ridge tops that provide views of the Pacific Ocean and the Channel Islands.
Many plants are labeled for easy identification, not surprisingly because the garden's mission is to advance the knowledge and understanding of plant life. A useful demonstration gardens illustrates how to design a landscape with California natives such as Emerald Carpet manzanita, Pink Island Form yarrow, Cleveland sage, bush monkeyflower, Canada goldenrod, Silver Carpet aster and California lilac.
Be sure to visit the walk-through sculpture created by Patrick Dougherty. Made of willow, the sculpture is 24-feet tall and 24-feet wide and named Toad Hall in a whimsical reference to the classic book, "Wind in the Willows." It stands in a wildflower meadow where masses of blooms appear from February through late spring, depending on rain and temperatures.
Don't be discouraged from visiting this garden in summer as there are flowers blooming year-round, and there's a visual feast of foliage plants to admire.
Visitors can take self-guided tours with the help of a map or participate in one-hour, docent-led tours, included with admission. A nursery on the premises sells plants suited for home landscapes, and a well-stocked gift shop offers a variety of gifts, gardening items, books and free literature about native plants suited for gardens.
A.C. Postel Rose Garden
The historic Santa Barbara Mission is a lovely backdrop for the A.C. Postel Rose Garden planted near swaths of rolling lawn below the mission. It began in 1959 when the late Bob Khalmann, a local nursery owner, donated 500 rose bushes that were planted in the lawn of the Mission Historical Park on approximately 2½ acres.
By 1982, the garden had deteriorated, although members of the Santa Barbara Rose Society valiantly tended to the bushes. Several members spearheaded a "Save the Rose Garden" drive, and with the help of city funds and foundation grants, the garden was refurbished in 1984. New and restored beds received copious quantities of amendments, were outfitted with efficient irrigation systems, and replanted with 1,750 rose bushes of many varieties and types.
It was renamed in 1992 to honor Mrs. A.C. Postel, one of the donors, on her 100th birthday.
The garden displays the history and evolution of roses, from Old Garden Roses on the northern portion, to modern on the south. To the east, beds of David Austin English roses line the stone wall, a remnant of the Mission era.
Roses are planted in groups of three to six for mass impact. Most are labeled.
Climbing roses can be trained on walls or fences or also in a more decorative manner as weeping standards, tree roses with blossoms cascading toward the ground. At this garden, you can see three standards of coral-colored Rosarium Utersen.
There also are many fragrant roses in this garden, but perhaps the most perfume wafts from a bed dedicated to hybrid musk roses, including Penelope, Kathleen and Buff Beauty.
The lower portion of the garden flanks Plaza Rubio, and it's bordered by a boxwood hedge enclosing mass plantings of newer introductions such as Knock Out, First Light, Rockin' Robin, Pillow Fight and Starry Night. Benches are placed in various locations, in sun or beneath the shade of a stately California pepper tree.
It's a lovely, tranquil setting, enjoyed by visitors and local residents alike. The city of Santa Barbara takes care that roses will remain for the enjoyment of all by issuing tickets to anyone who picks one of the treasured blooms.
Karen Dardick is a Southern California gardener, author and freelance garden writer. Her most recent book is "Simply Roses."
