GANNA Diva of Lotusland

Lotusland, the celebrated garden created by Ganna Walska in Santa Barbara, California, represents the second half of the creative life of a woman, who was, in her time a femme fatale, much married, but with a steely ambition to become a famous opera diva, though her talent was slight. From Polish teenager in the early part of the 20th century, she became a pre-revolutionary baroness in Russia, with five subsequent husbands, including American industrial royalty, Harold McCormick, head of International Harvester. Her life embraces many of the important events of the 20th century and the artists, tycoons and statesmen at center stage. She owned a renowned Paris theater for almost 50 years, earning the Légion d'honneur and the Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres for her contribution to French cultural life. But it is Lotusland, her eclectic and idiosyncratic Californian garden that has ensured her posterity.