Check out this web page http://januarymagazine.com/artcult/nolagardens.html
Being from N.O. I can give you some suggestions: camellia, azalea, gardenia, jasmine, banana trees, canna lillies, crinum lillies, gladiolus, daylillies, lantana, old garden roses, citrus, agapanthus (lily of the Nile). Depends on if you have sun or shade. Plant thickly and lots of green foliage. Enjoy.
Laurie

Hi Laurie,

Thanks for the suggestions :) I already bought pink cannas, blue Chinese Forget-me-nots, Cosmos seeds, a New Dawn Climbing Rose and some Majesty Palms (I know, but the will work for a while anyway). I would like to post a pic of my planter, but don't know how. Can you clue me in?

flowerdamsel,pretty much everyone on the garden web uses photobucket. If you don't have an account with them, you can open one up. It's free. Once you open your account,you can upload your pics into it and copy and paste into your messages. It's really simple to use.

Susan

YAY! I hope this works - this is what is looks like empty

Here is a link that might be useful: flowerdamsel planter

I have uploaded more pics - thanks guys! Since these pics were taken, I've added a few plants - majesty palms, pink mandvilla to drape, Blue Daze evolvulus, zucchini to drape, daffodils, pink cannas (not seen yet)Dusty Miller for contrast

Here is a link that might be useful:

I'm sending cut and paste "links" with pix of the Place D'Armes hotel in NOLA. It is on St. Ann; about two blocks to Jackson Sq. and two block to Bourbon St. It has a beautiful courtyard. There are gingers, crape myrtles to provide shade around and inside the garden; ferns; oleanders; bird of paradise; bananas; a shallow, square pond with a spouting fountain; a round, two tiered fountain, large planters placed strategically around the courtyard which can be swapped out as the season changes. Oh, yeah, and lots of impatiens and vinca, especially white vinca to stand out in the shade. Also, you need a couple of little bistro tables tucked strategically in the courtyard. Search Google Images and search for: "Place d'Armes" courtyard Be sure to use the double quotes. That is so Boolean but it works well for searches. Cut and paste the following URL.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ottoman42/176881005/in/pool-65489562@N00

You must post some pix when finished. - Terry

Hi Terry,

Thanks for the great sites! I am furiously adding more plants - pink bee balm, foxglove from seeds, hollyhock seeds, Autumn Joy Sedum. I did plant some white African daisies - they do make the other colors stand out. Especially the melon colored geraniums. My pink Wave petunia was actually a purple surprise. I decided to let him stay anyway. I'm now working on finding the best sunny spot for the climbing roses. I bought climbing Peace, America and Blaze and hope there will be enough sun for them to grow across the top of my fence.

Be sure to give your New Dawn climber adequate space. One of mine has a trunk on it that's 6" across now. I planted it about 8 years ago.

Still waiting for pix ;-). Yes, Sowngrow gives good advice about giving New Dawn plenty of room. Are you familiar with concertina wire? It is the barbed wire type stuff put on top of security fences. New Dawn is a natural concertina wire. It is one of the thorniest and sharpest roses I know of. You don't want it where there is lots of traffic unless you give it lots of room from where people will walk.

flower, I recommend this book - "Orleans Embrace with the Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carre" by T. J. Fisher and Roy E. Guste, Jr. I bought mine on Amazon's site. Wonderful history and photographs of the courtyards and gardens of The French Quarter. I have looked at mine over and over again. You will get so many ideas and refer back to it over and over again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Orleans Embrace

Here are recent pics (5/2/09) of my planter box and "New Orleans courtyard". I planted 6 zuccchini on each end of my planter box so they could trail down and they have done everything EXCEPT that, lol. Look how enormous they are!! Totally covering everything underneath. Poor potato vine, forgetmenots, geraniums, etc. But I do have 4" fruit and should be grilling next wekend :)

here's the pic

Here is a link that might be useful:

Let's try doing it with html. Here's a progression of my work so fat. You can even see one of my antique style lamp post in the last photo and the beginnings of my new bed to the right along the fence.