N’awlins joie de vivre in your own back yard

New Orleans French Quarter cascading plants

New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the world so when I heard gardening guru Felder Rushing felderrushing.net speak recently, I knew he was a natural for Flower Blog. I’m hoping the originality that infuses the Big Easy might inspire your gardening – or at least lend some panache to your outdoor entertaining plans.

Felder has a lot to share so I’m turning over to him. Tomorrow I will run more photos as well as plants to choose for a New Orleans style garden. (What follows is a condensed version of an article that appeared in Green Scenes Magazine, published by the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society.)

80 degrees at three in the morning
New Orleans is one of the steamiest towns in America, partly because it is below sea level and surrounded by miles of swampland that filter what few breezes waft in from the Gulf of Mexico. And did I mention it doesn’t cool off at night?

Gardeners in New Orleans think 80 degrees at three in the morning is perfectly normal. And they glide gracefully through humidity so thick you can lick it, while visitors stand around panting until they stop struggling and simply limber up. It’s why New Orleans is called the Big Easy. We aren’t slow out of laziness; it’s our humidity-survival mode.

Bottle tree

Flamboyant is a relative concept
Visitors are immediately struck by the lavish decadence of New Orleans. This is a town where flamboyant is a relative concept.

Because of the city's celebrated mixed heritage and early lack of zoning or covenants it’s usual to see (in all but the most staid areas of the upper-crust Garden District) purple Victorian “painted lady” houses nestled between bold pink, royal blue or lime green cottages and filigreed rowhouses encrusted with cutout gingerbread details in contrasting pastels.

Painted Garden

Mardi Gras beads festooning trees; a vinyl alligator mailbox
And add a dash of déclassé – in New Orleans, Mardi Gras beads festoon most of the trees at least part of the year – and no one so much as raises an eyebrow if a vinyl alligator mailbox appears down the street.

This is a city of excess, and garden ornaments – even highly decorated fences – are de rigueur. The most over-the-top Victorian landscaper would have blushed at New Orleans’ gaudy use of color and texture.

Live oaks and Spanish moss

Ghostly gray Spanish moss drapes nearly everything
In addition to giant magnolias, oaks, bald cypress and arborvitae, there are also hulking rubber trees, small citrus trees, bananas underplanted with monstrous agaves, hibiscus, variegated shell ginger, philodendrons, plumbago and aspidistra.

Though palms and Volkswagen-size sagos are popular accents, a surprising number of hardy cacti and succulents can tolerate the rainfall. And ghostly gray Spanish moss drapes nearly everything.

An amazing garden comeback from Hurricane Katrina
The never-ending parade of plants in New Orleans made a huge difference in how quickly the city seems to have recovered from Hurricane Katrina.

There has been an amazing garden comeback, especially the New Orleans Botanical Gardens and the nearby historic Longue Vue house and gardens, both of which suffered great losses from two late-summer weeks of being under salty water with no irrigation for months afterwards.

One of the easiest ways to include a New Orleans feel to your own garden would be by overstuffing a large ornate planter with coarse-textured shrubs, vines, perennials, and tropical annuals. Be sure to include authentic, cascading “spillers” such as asparagus fern and ornamental sweet potatoes.

Flower Fact of the Day: Another tidbit from Felder: Though insects are kept in check by natural predators, most gardeners rarely go out without a small stick for dealing with spiderwebs and slithering reptiles.

About the author
Felder Rushing, syndicated garden columnist, author of 15 garden books, and host of a public radio gardening program, is a 10th-generation Southern gardener from just north of New Orleans. He is a contributing editor for Horticulture Magazine. For more tips on “N’awlins’-style” gardening – in or out of the South – e-mail him at felderrushing.net.

Jacqueline - Editor

April 10, 2008

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Comments (2)

Comments

Paz

Wow! I enjoyed reading this article. So much to learn about gardening in New Orleans. I love all the photos, too, especially the yellow flowers (what are they called?) and the trees with the Spanish moss. Good to read that gardens are making a comeback after the hurricane.

Paz

Susan P.

It's reminiscent of Savannah but more humid. Similar kinds of plants and growing zone. Interesting article.

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