Madame Walska's Topiarlj Garden
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' 04~_ Nl:\XISLl:TTl:R FOR Ml:MBl:RS. VOLUMI: 9 NO. 2 & SUMMl:R 2000 MadameWalska's TopiarLJ Garden BLJAMANDA JONrs THE HISTORYOF TOPIARY TOPIARY IS THE FASCINATING and extraordinary art of cutting trees and shrubs into quaint and imaginative shapes . It derives from topiarius,and originally had a much wider meaning, referring to ornamental gardening in general. Topiariusin turn is derived from the Greek toposor place. The first written descriptions of topiary come from the Romans . It is likely that its original source was much ,earlier and farther east. By the end of die first century A.D., topiary was a familiar and natural embellishment of the gardens of the wealthy. Pliny the Elder describes the garden of his villa in Tuscany as being "Adorned with the representation of divers animals in box and evergreens shaped into a variety of forms." The Renaissance in Italy produced the next great interest in topiary. The period looked back to classical times and texts for its inspiration, as the resulting gardens showed . A villa in Florence built in 1459 included topiary "spheres, porticoes, temples, vases, urns, apes, donkeys, oxen, a Madame Walska'stopiary zoo vividlyexpressed her fasci11t1tion with the complicatedrelationship bear, giants, men and women, war betweenman, plantsand animals.This dancing elephant thrived at Lotus/andin the 1960s. riors, a witch, philosophers, popes and cardinals." IN THIS ISSUE With time, the influence of the Madame Walska'sTopian.i Garden I VolunteerProfile: 0 Renaissance gradually spread Normanand Helen Hillemann throughout Europe. In France, the Restoringthe Topian-1Garden 3 style culminated in Le Notre's late Three New TrusteesJoin 4 New to the Collections 9 ( 17th-century scheme at Versailles for the Boardof Directors HorticulturalHappenings 10 1., )Zing Louis XN The garden was a http://www.lotusland.org 4 John Lafleur, 30 Years 12 representation of the Monarch's Lotusfest! 5 at Lotusland absolute authority over both people and landscape , ·and reputedly cost RoLJal BotanicalGardens at Kew 6 Member's FamilLJDaLJ 13 Continuedon page2 ImportantVisitors 7 MemberEvents 16 signs were commonplace. Within a · hundred years, topiary had been taken to its extreme, and extravagant assortments of "giants, animals, monsters, coats of arms and mottoes" were part of any . fashionable English garden. The inevitable reaction occurred. This time it was writers and philosophers who led the attack against the artifice of topiary and formal gardens, instead advocating a more natural or pas toral landscape, with an emphasis on lakes and groupings of trees. By the end of the 18th century, the penchant for the picturesque vista had become overpowering. The 19th century saw a very gradual return to Towbes Foundation.) For some time, the formal style of garden design, she had collected and gathered into and along with it, the use of geo several scrapbooks pictures of floral metrical topiary closer to the house, and horticultural clocks, zodiac orna to reflect its architectural features. ments, topiary animals and horticul Continuedfrom page 1 tural oddities cut from newspapers over two billion francs. Louis's court and magazines. A clipping from one gathered among the topiary for TOPIARY AT LOTUSLAND of these scrapbooks dates from a music, dance and pageants produced MADAME WAlSKA hired Santa Barbara 1955 edition of the Los Angeles Times, by the king-and sometimes per landscape architect Ralph T. Stevens documenting the Osaki Plant Zoo, formed by him. in 1954 to create a horticultural clock the eventual source of a number of In England, the art of clipping as a centerpiece of a proposed topiary Lotusland topiary. By 1960, the became increasingly popular, and by garden. (fhe clock was restored in topiary was an important feature of the early 17th century complex de- 1997 with funds donated by the the garden. Juniper, cypress and This view of the 300-year-oldtopiary garden at LevensHall in Englandand a topiarius at work (aboveright) are bothimages from Madame Walska1s extensivescrapbook on formalgardens. A 1955 newspaper photoo f a bougain Restorir\gth e villeaAlligator led Madame to the Osaki PlantZoo. TopiarwGard er\ BLJLORI ANN DAVID I BEGAN RESEARCHIN 1993, the first year that the garden was open to the public . Janet Eastman was most helpful, as was Sharon Crawford and the entire Lotusland staff. As a volunteer and docent, it was most interesting to me to pursue the possibility of re-creating Madame Walska's Topiary Garden, which featured an impressive horticultural clock. There was always a lot of interest in her eccentric, whimsical garden, but few knew where to begin to bring it back to life. The research was fascinating, eugenia were trimmed and formed and with access to the archives, I re into a menagerie including a bear drew all the zoomorphic characters and its cub, a gorilla, a crocodile, a and architectural shapes. dancing pig, a camel, a horse and a When we had our first Lotus/and variety of birds and reptiles amount Celebratesgala, a topiary garden ret ( .ng to more than 25 figures. A chess set and other geometric figures rospective was displayed, including brought the total topiary to more four re-created topiary frames and a than 40 in all. Most of the shapes proposed conceptual design that declined over the years, either losing drew on all aspects of historic past, their definition or failing to thrive, as well as current horticultural con suffering from being watered on the ]~FO O~ "alliga to~," fuhioned from crowin~ bou cerns and future garden traffic. same schedule as the surrounding pu,villaea vino. gets bi-weekly "barbering" from Jamel OJllki,12. Thi$ ii larcut animal In "zoo•· created by boy's LoriAnn David has a long-st.anding lawn in which they were planted and d•d, Y~lo OSlllri, 35, of 422 No.rth Oxford avenuo, out of treu, bu.lhu and ahruba. o.. ki. who recently moved relationshipwith Lotus/and.As docent, the encroaching shade of surround here lrom Hawaii. baa been engaged in traditionally ing trees. Cmtlly bobby ol'-topiary ilrl for 10 ycara. committeemember and designer,she has shared her considerableenergy and creativity with the garden for years. Through her business, LandscapeArt Design, she has donatedmany hoursof consultationand design work for the renovationof the horticulturalclock , and now the topiarygarden. Her new designdraws heavilyupon Stevens'01iginal plan. The new plan pro videsfor theinstalfa - .,,~..,, . I"'.., .<. lion of 1mgation1 f.· renovationof the A soiland additionof ~o a maze of low -· 0 TOPIARY GARDEN RENOVATION ci GANNA WAL.SKAL OTUSIAND hedges,as wellas 2 - o < July 16, 1995 ne1K1hards cape 2 g ..________ _ ---.:L.J and, of course, LoriAnn David/LandscapeArt Designprovided plans for the currentrenovation . topiaryframes. ThreeNew Trustees Joir1 the Boardof Lotuslartd LOTUSLANDIS PLEASEDto welcome 1n 1998 and 1999 and her wise April N. Walstad, William W. (Rick) advice and ideas helped shape the Drewry, and Harry W. Kolb to its final plan, one of the recommenda Board of Trustees. All three are tions of which was expanding the Friends of Lotusland, active in the Board of Trustees to help Lotusland Santa Barbara community and eager achieve its greatest potential. to help Lotusland accomplish its goals of preservation, education and conservation. Harry Kolb and his wife Karen 1 long-time Santa Barbara residents, have been intimately involved with Lotusland since 1993. Harry 1 the senior estate agent with Sotheby7s International Realty1 is known for Rick Drewry moved to Santa his marketing of major residential Barbara five years ago after the sale properties in Santa Barbara anc1 of his photo-processing firm, Drewry Montecito and is considered an 1 Motivated by the desire to live in Photocolor Corporation in Burbank 1 authority on our community s rich a pleasant community and be on her California. Rick is on the Board of architectural history and many pri own professionally, April Walstad the Montecito Association, is a vate gardens. Karen is a Lotusland established Walstad Investment Director of the Montecito Water docent and has been an invaluable Counseling, Inc., in Santa Barbara District and is an enthusiastic boater 1 member of every Lotus/andCelebrates six years ago after working in the golf er and gardener. Rick and his committee since the beginning of the investment community in Atlanta wife Wendy have three sons. Wendy gala event five years ago. This is in and with Rothschild, Inc, in New is an active volunteer at the Music addition to her volunteer work with York. April was a member of Academy of the West and a docent at Meals on Wheels and the Santa Lotusland 1s strategic plan task force Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens. Barbara Museum of Art. http://www.lotuslar\dmorg ATTENTIONINTERNET SURFERS! Lotusland Foundation's official website, which went live on the Internet on April 14, is chock-full of information detailing the various gardens and extensive plant collections; the latest practices in horticulture; education outreach and volunteer programs; membership; tour reservations; and 1 last but not least 1 the history of Lotusland and Madame Ganna Walska. The site is also illustrated with choice color and black and white photographs from the Lotusland archives. Greg Smith of Westmont College 1 who volunteered many hours of his time to work with the Lotusland website committee, has succeed ed in designing a basic 1 factual website with plenty of room for growth 1 and change. We are very pleased that Lotusland s mission of preservation 1 conservation and education has an address on the information super highway at last. Check it out, and tell a friend. -Deidre Cantrell Lotusfest! August26, 2000 Lian Hua Chinesecharacters meanin g lotus. SUMMER BRINGSMANY P LEASURESin Santa Barbara, but at Lotusland we have a very unique one. Our water gardens are the best place in the area to see large stands of Sacred and American Lotus flowers in all their glory.