Friday, January 3, 2020

Walking the main drive—cactus style—at Lotusland

On prior visits to Lotusland I've taken rather random routes through the garden—traversing back and forth across the main drive as I explore the various gardens and follow whatever catches my eye. However, when arriving for the Bromeliad Summit last April, we all headed straight for the house, walking along the main drive (highlighted below in orange) with purpose and a destination. The circle at the end of the drive is where these photos were taken.

The circle is where the cactus start to march along the drive, towards the house.

Many of us stopped to snap photos. How can you pass by a beauty like this and not stop to record it?

It was still early enough the bright sunshine was rather forgiving, not too harsh.

And the fuzzy cactus were showing off their special effects.

I should explain that I'm alternating back and forth from the right side of the drive (new world cactus) to the left side (old world euphorbia) as these photos change from back-lit cactus to blue sky and cactus-like euphorbia.

Approaching the house itself...

Here I'm standing with my back to the house and shooting towards the parking area and the dragon trees (Dracaena draco).

Now we've jumped ahead and I'm back outside on a break. Rather than organize these photos like a single walk through I thought it would be more interesting to arrange them as I took them throughout the day. The light has changed (it's almost 11 am, it was just after 8 am when we arrived), but the cactus still look mysterious.

So many barrels!

Now it's after 1 pm and the sky has clouded up.

Thankfully the cactus flowers don't seem to care.

After 2 pm and the sun is out again. I would have liked to see the view from the balcony.

The staff at Lotusland was so very welcoming to our group.

Believe it or not I still have more photos of Lotusland to share so stay tuned!

Weather Diary, Jan 2: Hi 53, Low 43/ Precip .04

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

18 comments:

  1. Such an incredible place! Wandering on your own (rather than being forced to march along behind a docent) had to be a joy.

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    1. I've never visited Lotusland with a docent. We've always became members prior to our visits so we could wander on our own. That still limits you to a 4 hour visit though. This time I was able to duck out off and on throughout the day (even skipping one of the talks) so it was definitely an amazing experience.

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  2. Inspiring. This is another place I've never been to but have on my growing bucket list.

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  3. What an incredible part of the garden. Am becoming more appreciative of how beautiful cacti are in the landscape. Find the contorted cacti/euphorbia in the final picture unsettling. They remind me of alien-like creatures from a B-rated horror flick.

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    1. I'm with you on the "unsettling" aspect. I'm not sure I would want them wrapping around my house.

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    2. I'm glad someone else said this. I didn't want to because I thought I was being too picky to hone in on that one thing. So dissonant to me in that otherwise incredibly beautiful landscape. Maybe if it were somewhere else, away from the house, as you say ...

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  4. This is surely a garden I must visit before too long. Those barrel cactus! Well-just about all those cactus.

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  5. I can imagine the delight of walking through the front door and seeing those massive dragon trees. Wow. The map of the gardens gave me a slight panic: who can see everything in one visit? Unless you rush through... What's missing here is a guest house, a Bed & Breakfast. I'd want to stay for a long weekend and slowly take everything in.

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    1. You're right. It's a lot to see, especially when your typical visit is limited to 4 hours!

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  6. The enormous size of individuals plus numbers of each species is mind-blowing. What a treat!

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  7. Ah..another one of my favorite areas at LL. I took a photo of that very blooming cactus at the top of the post when I was there-either a day or two before or after the summit. What a place.

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  8. It's almost like stepping through a transporter into an alien universe. Your photos often have that effect. Mesmerizing!
    rickii

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