Designed in 1919 by noted architect Reginald Johnson, the 8,800-square-foot Spanish-style mansion in California once housed the collections of Madame Ganna Walska, the garden’s creator. The front garden features Madame’s oddly shaped cacti.

Lotusland is a series of connected -- but stylistically very distinct -- garden rooms. Eerie dragon trees flank a path in the front garden.

The tiered green theater is populated by 17th-century French statuettes. it is rumored that during World War II, Walska had the statuettes hidden under manure at her estate in France. After the war, she had them shipped to Lotusland for its theater garden.

Walska strategically dotted her garden with unusual objects placed for maximum effect, such as this stone grotesque in the theater garden.

The shallow pool in the aloe garden is painted white to reflect moonlight. It is bordered with abalone shells and adorned with fountains of clam shells.

Serpentine succulents smother a pot in the garden. Walska was inspired by what she thought was beautiful -- so much so that she would drive around trawling for plants. If she saw a prized specimen in someone’s yard, she reportedly sent the chauffeur to the door offering to buy it.

A rabbit statue is partially hidden next to a path.

Mounds of cast pomegranates are placed near an entrance.

A graceful metal tree is covered in exotic, soilless air plants.

Neptune and two Tritons sit in the parterre.

Mesh caps protect sedums from leaves, transforming the hanging pots into jellyfish.

Walska obtained these path edgers of blue slag glass from a bottling factory.

A brass dragon fountainhead adorns one of the garden fountains.

Even after Walska’s death, the garden has continued to expand. The cactus garden, opened in 2004, features more than 500 plants donated by a friend, Merritt Dunlap, who had raised them from seed.

Geometric topiaries near the fern garden anchor airy tree ferns.

Martha enjoys the exotic shapes of the colorful aloes during a springtime visit to the garden.

The water garden features the estate’s former swimming pool, which Walska made into a planted pond. In mid- to late summer, the eponymous lotus blooms populate this waterscape. There are hundreds of water lilies and Asian lotus plants growing in the water and -- legend has it -- the very first one blossoms every year on June 26, Walska’s birthday.