Lotusland Goes Global

Lotusland – Montecito’s 37-acre botanical paradise which is limited by a conditional use permit to just 20,000 visitors annually – is going global thanks to a free arts and cultural app from Bloomberg, joining 380 cultural partners worldwide with an astonishing 29 million users.

“It will certainly bring Lotusland to a considerably larger audience,” Executive Director Rebecca Anderson told me at the annual meeting, where 96 guests were present in the Theatre Garden when President David Jones revealed last year’s revenue of $4,763,606 with expenses of $5,257,805. 

But shrewd investing with financial giant Goldman Sachs showed a total of $21,450,222.

“Again we are limited by our numbers,” he told the 96 guests, as he pointed out Santa Barbara Zoo had 500,000 visitors last year and the Huntington Library in Pasadena more than 800,000.

Dan Bifano, past president, trustee and honorary council chair, was given a watercolor of the Rose Garden in recognition of his services, while Susie Read Cronin and Elizabeth Patterson were introduced as new trustees.

Peggy Perry, a professor emeritus in the Huntley College of Agriculture at Cal Poly Pomona University, gave a talk called “Dames in the Garden: California Women Who Shaped the Landscape,” including Lotusland founder Polish opera singer Ganna Walska and Elizabeth Kellam de Forest, both of whom died in 1984.

Three days earlier, Lotusland hosted a dinner at the Belmond El Encanto hotel honoring Montecito cardiovascular specialist Steven Gundry that raised $18,000.

The annual meeting was followed by an al fresco picnic lunch on the Great Lawn with guests including Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Dana Newquist, Caroline Thompson, John Hilliard, Patti Prairie, Roger and Julie Davis, and Peter and Julie Morley.