Lotusland is an estate and botanic garden near Santa Barbara, featuring an over the top collection of  bromeliads, succulents, water plants, and ferns. Madame Ganna Walska, a Polish opera singer (who married six times!) was responsible for the more fantastical elements of the garden including 400 species of cycad, pools rimmed in abalone shells, 120 kinds of aloe, giant clamshells, and a topiary zoo of 26 animals.

(I particularly love that last image of Madame Walska. Those are serious gardening threads.)

(And that top image is from a post on my back 40, which features many more images and details.)