Water, at Lotusland

When we visited Southern California in late November I had the opportunity to visit Lotusland in Montecito, CA. This was my 4th visit, the last time I'd been was spring of 2019, during the Bromeliad Summit, when we had all day access in between seminars. This time I had only 2 hours to see what I wanted to see, that required a plan...

So, I decided to take a different route into the garden. Instead of walking the wide lane lined with Agave attenuata, I tucked into a almost hidden entrance off the parking lot. 

It took me past the Japanese Garden, but I didn't stop.

This was where I wanted to start my visit, at the water stairs. 

I've missed this part of the garden on all but one of my visits.  

By starting here I was going to see what I wanted in reverse of my "usual" path, a great way to see with new eyes.

At the top of the stairs is this ornamental carved limestone wellhead.

Beyond that, the cypress allée looking to the water garden...

The water garden was once a rectangular swimming pool bordered by two waterlily ponds. Now it's all for the plants.

Looking to the right you can see Madame Ganna Walska's home in the distance.

I turned back to walk the other side of the pond—which was missing most of it's signature lotus plants, perhaps they'd already been removed for the season.

Such a fantastic papyrus explosion.

The way these two paths line up, I've always wanted to walk across the water, it's only 3 ft deep. Doing so would probably get me kicked out of the garden though (and very very wet).

A parting glance at this pool/pond...

Before we move on to the aloe pond...

Whenever I'm in Southern California I hope for sunshine, but the cloudy sky certainly made for better photos than I've gotten at Lotusland in the past.

In case you're amazed I'm not stopping to talk about the plants, well don't worry. There will be future posts. I'm just focusing on the ponds, pools, fountains, and waterways in today's post.

Perhaps I'm cheating a bit by including this tile fountain, since the water had been drained. But you know what? My blog, my rules...

What are you looking at?

This body of water really is a swimming pool, with a giant-clamshell beach.

The Neptune fountain, with it's pair of mermen.

And the rill...

Starting at this eight-ray Moorish star.

The rooster grotto in the bromeliad garden includes a hidden pond.

I missed the small pond in the cycad garden, and a few other fountains, but with only 2 hours it was impossible to see it all.

My visit wrapped up at the visitors center/gift shop. I did buy a couple of plants, a long wrapping tillandsia (it showed up in my mantel post), a Microgramma vacciniifolia, and a tiny cactus whose name I cannot remember but it's very cute. 

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