Exceptional Plants Auction: Lotusland’s Horticultural Hoedown

Crossing Encephalartos horridus with Encephalartos woodii might sound like the formula for developing the world’s next deadly disease. But horticulturalists will realize that it’s actually a unique cycad hybrid – one that results in super spiny and glossy green leaves. The Lotusland-created specimen will be among the hundreds of rare and specimen plants available at the Montecito botanical garden’s 13th annual Exceptional Plants Auction coming this October. 

Billed as the ultimate plant party, the annual auction – the only one at a botanical garden on the west coast – attracts more than 300 of the region’s top plant experts, collectors and aficionados vying for the chance to take home exceptional botanical treasures. About 40 percent of the auction items are propagated at Lotusland’s nursery, cultivated from seeds or plant cuttings at the former estate where Madame Ganna Walska sold her jewel collection to obtain rare flora to curate the varied gardens that contain some 3,500 different species of plants, and 10 times as many specimens, including one of the most significant cycad collections in the country. Lotusland’s 20 gardens range from succulents to olive trees and exotic orchards, spanning from formal ornamental flowers to theater and topiary gardens. 

The other 60 percent of the plants are donated by other botanic gardens, private collectors, specialty nurseries, plant breeders, university gardens and landscape architects, who generously share their plants with Lotusland for the event. Palms, begonias, bromeliads, succulents, Australian native plants, orchids, potted succulent arrangements and even trees are among the approximately 250 items that will be available for bidding in the silent and live auctions.

“It’s our signature mission-focused event for people within the horticultural community to gather and geek out on the most incredible, rare, exotic and interesting plants,” said Rebecca Anderson, Lotusland’s Executive Director. “It’s kind of a who’s who within the plant world. Collectors come and get excited and bid for the chance to take home these really unusual and special plants, while hobnobbing with more than 300 of their colleagues who are passionate about plants. It’s a mini-reunion every year for the specialists who come from here but also Northern and Southern California. People walk around and talk to the plant experts and see what they’re bidding on, and then they go and bid on the ones that are hottest. There’s only one of each plant –- you either get it or you don’t get it. That makes it exciting.”

The collections come together through the careful curation of the auction’s star-studded Exceptional Plants Auction committee that includes Paul Mills, Lotusland’s Curator for Living Collections; Jeff Chemnick of Aloes in Wonderland; Seacrest Nursery’s Cristi Walden; Robert Bett, CEO of PlantHaven International; San Marcos Growers President Randy Baldwin; and Terra Sol nursery Co-owner Mike Tully. 

“They help us strategize how to run the event and what to include,” explained Anna Bower, Lotusland’s Assistant Curator for Living Collections, who personally cross-bred the Encephalartos hybrid. “They go through our nursery and pick plants from our collection to put in and we visit their nurseries to select plants for the auction. And during the event, they’re walking around giving plant advice to people and trying to talk up the plants to get more bids.” 

That’s part of what makes the Exceptional Plants Auction event, slated this year for 1-4 pm on October 5, a much more casual affair than the typical upscale galas at the gardens, like the one last month that celebrated Lotusland’s 30th anniversary. Guests also have the opportunity to enjoy signature cocktails and light bites as they peruse the plants and chat up the aficionados. 

The low-key nature of the auction even extends to the sartorial choices, Bower said. 

“All the plant lovers in the community are there, and everyone is usually wearing plant-themed clothing, like funny Hawaiian printed shirts with botanical patterns,” she said. 

While the afternoon is meant to be fun, it’s also an important fundraiser that helps support Lotusland’s role as one of the premier botanical gardens in the world, an extraordinary haven for rare and endangered plants. Proceeds from the general admission ticket sales ($150) sponsorships ($1,000-$10,000), and plant sales go toward closing the budgetary structural deficit; the perennial fiduciary tension between Lotusland’s regular admissions and the founding (and ironlad) Conditional Use Permit that limits Lotusland’s visitor capacity and quantity of events. 

But that doesn’t mean the plants themselves are priced beyond reach. 

“We have price points for everyone,” said Bower. “Some things go for thousands of dollars, but other people can get really cool small, rare specimens and really obscure items that you’d never see anywhere else for a lot less, including a few for under $50.” 

The salient point is that the sale acutely aligns with Lotusland’s mission and commitment to preserving biodiversity in the world and remaining a champion of sustainable horticulture, Bower said.

“Ganna Walska was the ultimate plant collector and we’re honoring the legacy with the auction,” she said. “This is the way you can take a special piece of Lotusland home.”