Bummer! I am visiting New Orleans from MArch 4-8 - just missed it. Can anyone recommend good public gardens and commercial nurseries to visit? I grew up in NO, so I know how to get around. I miss Zone 9, so help appreciated!

The weather has been nice the last few weeks and I decided to work on the New Orleans garden some more. I really want to "finish" it this year, and I want it to be stunning! So I began digging out most of the plants that aren't going to stay here. I also moved out the whiskey barrel water garden and then dismantled the rock wall behind it. That was a real chore, busting up the rock wall and hauling the heavy rocks out of the garden. But it took up space that I had plans for. You see, in that spot right there is a concrete ramp that used to go into a storage building that was sitting where the guest bedroom is now. When we rebuilt the house, we couldn't get this concrete slab up and it has always annoyed me. There's valuable dirt underneath it and I wanted to plant it! But I follow the Marine motto, adapt, improvise and overcome. The slab was perfect for the whiskey barrel water garden. And now it's perfect for a couple of iron filigris chairs. I don't allow smoking in the house, so this area is now the new "smoking area". The chairs on this side of the "alley" are in the shade. And my brother can now sit there and smoke. And the unique "butt man" I bought for $3 at a yard sale is strategically placed next to them. And here's the new, improved, overall view of my "blank canvas": My plans are to fill this area with assorted herbs and a couple of tomato and pepper plants. I'll also have planters on the walls spilling over with assorted mints. All plants I plant here will be edible or useful in some way. I plan to put some kind of grid (sorta like lattic but a bigger pattern and sturdier wood) over the garden for an arbor-like roof. I also intend to use a similar grid pattern to enclose the open end and make an arched entrance to add to the elegance I have envisioned for this garden. Any suggestions you guys might have to further enhance my French/New Orleans theme would be greatly appreciated. Any ideas for plants would be great too. Any ideas on what to do about the ugly gutters? They've really got to go, but I need some kind of gutter system. Otherwise, this area floods and drains under the guest bedroom and can cause the floor to buckle. But the current system, altho effective, is just plain ugly. I've just bought some more trim paint so I can repaint all the trim on the house. As you can see, it definitely needs to be touched up.

I know this is mostly OT from the original post but I thought it might be of interest. I emailed the link to this thread to an American friend of mine who lives in Louisiana. Here are some excerpts from the reply I received: "I just read your last email where you sent me the link to the AU Garden Web forum and I found it so interesting that I just had to reply back to you on my own personal take of the posters' opinions. As far as the N.O. Botanical Gardens go and their request for replacement seeds and plants, that's a good thing, I suppose. It is a beautiful garden in the springtime and I've been there many times. But all the plants they want to replace are very common and easily available down here (once the plant nurseries get back on their feet which many have already). I'm wondering, tho, how these new plants and seeds are going to be cultivated and maintained without enough people to do it. I'm assuming that there are plenty of volunteers that can at this time. But I am wondering about that. The botanical gardens are located in City Park where they're trying to get FEMA trailers set up and the last I heard, lots of contractors from out of state as well as FEMA people are living in tents there. But that's not what's important anyway. I personally think that the botanical gardens aren't that important right now when you see so many desperate, homeless people that just need something to call a roof over there heads. And I'm an avid gardener myself. I just have to address the posters who talked about us being the richest nation and we have such poor assistance. Well, you Aussie friends are right on the money. We poor taxpayers here have to take care of the big government as well as take care of those that won't work. All of us here in the US know that if the federal government builds anything, it's half-assed. A perfect example is the levee system in N.O. that broke and caused all the destruction and deaths. It wasn't Katrina that did it, it was the levees breaking. The federal army corp of engineers built those many many years ago and were substandard back then. The same army corp is repairing them right now and promise to be finished by June. They aren't making them any stronger, they're just patching them back to Cat. 3 hurricane protection. Well, I don't think they'd hold a Cat. 3 either and you saw what happened with a Cat. 4. N.O. would have been okay for the most part if the levees hadn't have broken. Some posters on your forum mentioned not understanding why thousands of FEMA trailers are just sitting empty when so many need them. Aside from the unexcusable fact that FEMA is inept and doesn't know what the hell they're doing and nobody knows the answers from their office headquarters, I'll tell you why people don't have them. FEMA said they cannot and will not set up trailers unless there is proper water, sewer and utilities to hook up to. Well, the lights are still out in the majority of the...

Virginia, by now I've posted the photos of about 20 roses from my weekend visit to Louis Armstrong Park on HMF. 7-8 of these are noisettes: Fewell's Noisette (4 photos), Tutta’s Pink Noisette (2 photos), Mary Washington, Haynesville Pink Cluster (2 photos), La Nymphe, Mrs. Wood's Lavender-Pink Noisette, Multiflore de Vaumarcus. I noticed that someone with your name posted lovely photos for these and other noisettes. That must be you, I think! I only wish to be better at taking photographs and with something more 'sophisticated' than my iPhone. Hope you find these useful nonetheless. BTW, that Alliance Franco-Russe is indeed beautiful but, as I was taking a closeup photo, it lodged a huge thorn so deep into my shoulder that it required a very slow and careful plucking to remove it! It's absolutely beautiful, I must say, very floriferous, and not a large shrub, ideal for smaller gardens like mine, alas if it would be hardy enough. stillanntn, I had no idea that you are from New Orleans. I fell in love with this city ever since I first saw it some 20 or so years ago. Your old residence is in a gorgeous area! I hope there are still roses planted by that lady and next time I'll make sure to reserve some time to search for them. There is some possibility I'll come back to NO for a weekend again next spring (fingers crossed). Thank you very much for sharing your beautiful memories.