Resurrection Of A Garden

Editor, Stephen Kelly

At the entrance to the Conservatory of the Two Sisters is the garden?EUR??,,????'???s collection of aquatics donated and maintained by Richard Sacher and the staff of American Aquatic Gardens. This pond holds a variety of tropical and hardy water lillies and other aquatics from late March to the fall. The pool is unfiltered. Submerged plants help to keep the water clean while fish eat any mosquito larvae. Each of the plants in the pond is planted in plastic pots raised off the pond?EUR??,,????'???s floor to six to eight inches below the water surface.

City Park, the early days. The area that comprises New Orleans City Park?EUR??,,????'???s 1,500 acres used to be a swampy, oak forest, home to Accolapissa and Biloxi Indians who traded by dugout canoes along the banks of Bayou St. John. French explorer Jean-Baptist LeMoyne, sieur de Bienville recognized the value of this waterway from Lake Pontchartrain (just north of the park) for the new city he founded for the French crown in 1718.

The land became the Allard Plantation. Philanthropist John McDonogh left the land to the city. A spot called the ?EUR??,,????'??Dueling Oaks?EUR??,,????'?? became a nortorious rendezvous for gentlemen settling disagreements with pistols or, more often, sabers, in the European dueling tradition. In Alcee Fortier?EUR??,,????'???s History of Louisiana he states that on one Sunday in 1839, 10 duels were fought at the Dueling Oaks. The first ?EUR??,,????'??letting of blood?EUR??,,????'?? was often enough to appease the offended and end such duels. Bernard Mandeville de Marigny, apparently quite a successful duelists, fought 19 duels beneath the oaks. The land became a park in 1854, but dueling wasn?EUR??,,????'???t outlawed until 1890. When I visited City Park in 2003 there were no duelists about, but I did witness a car crash. Ah, bring back the good ol?EUR??,,????'??? romantic days.

Horticulturist Melinda Taylor is working here on an annual bed. Paul Soniat, director of the New Orleans Botanical Garden, says his crew follows basic horticulture practices. For instance, soil assessments recommend a fertilizer with lower potassium. A 15-5-15 fertilizer is generally used. The botanical garden uses Rainbird and Nelson irrigation heads, but most are not on automatic controllers. The rains are so variable in New Orleans that the crew finds it more effective to manually turn on the systems as required.

The horticulture staff of the New Orleans Botanical Garden (NOBG). From left: Reese Anderson, maintenance supervisor; Paul Soniat, director; Patrick Youngblood; Kathy McNamara, horticulture director; James Authur, horticulturist; Mark Meunier, horticulturist. Not pictured: Melinda Taylor, horticulturist. Mr. Soniat has a horticulture degree from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette and has been with the NOBG since 1982.

Kathy McNamara, horticulture director, keeps a close eye on the subtropical and tropical ferns cutlivated in the Conservatory. Among the fern species are Staghorns. Sphagnum moss or a mixture of bagasse, tree fern fiber and leaf mold make an excellent medium. Too much watering causes the greatest number of problems for these ferns. The fern?EUR??,,????'???s outer layers may look dry, but often the spongy inner layers of the medial and basal fronds are still saturated with water.

Home of the Mature Oak

My lasting impression of City Park is sitting on a bench in the waning hours before dusk regarding the magnificent expanse of large oaks lining the FDR Mall. City Park is asserted to be home to the largest collection of mature live oak trees in the world. Trees in the oldest grove are over 600 years old.

It is also home to the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Sidney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden; the Couturie Forest and Arboretum; numerous sporting facilities, including the 26,500 seat Tad Gormley Stadium (the flood waters came up to the football goals crossbars); an amusement park; Storyland; 11 miles of lagoons; bridges?EUR??,,????'??+and the New Orleans Botanical Garden (NOBG)?EUR??,,????'??+12 acres with over 2,000 varieties of plants, a renovated Conservatory of the Two Sisters, the Pavilion of the Two Sisters, the Garden Study Center and several themed gardens.

The colonnade arbor leading to the Lord & Taylor Rose Garden was restored in 1984, with benches built into the brick. Staghorn ferns hang from the brick columns were replaced after the hurricane.

Before the Storm?EUR??,,????'??+and After

In March 2005, five months before Katrina, the City Park Improvement Association Board of Commissioners adopted ?EUR??,,????'??City Park 2018,?EUR??,,????'?? a $115 million master plan to be completed by 2018 for the 300th anniversary of New Orleans.

When Hurricane Katrina made second and third landfalls in southeast Louisiana as a category-3 storm on the morning of August 29, 2005, it was hard to grasp that the historic homes, cemeteries and newer developments on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain I had visited were now underwater.

The ?EUR??,,????'??runway?EUR??,,????'?? from the Pavilion to the domed Conservatory (greenhouse) in the distance shows a restored landscape. The common bermudagrass here survived Katrina?EUR??,,????'???s flooding. The NOBG Director Paul Soniat credits this to its deep root system. St. Augstinegrass, however, did not fair so well and those lawns will be reestablished. The crepe myrtles, oaks and Phoenix canariensis also survived. The runway is now lined with white flowering Camellia sasanqua ?EUR??,,????'??Setsugekka?EUR??,,????'??? hedges, which replaced the original Japanese yew (Podocarpus macrophyllus) hedges that suffered from Phytophthora and Pythium root rot.

John Hopper, director of New Orleans City Park, described the park damage: Ninety percent of the park was under water (one to eight feet depth) for up to three weeks. Saltwater entered the park and killed or damage most of the grass (including that of the three golf courses) and tender vegetation in the Botanical Garden. Pine trees snapped by the dozens; a thousand trees toppled, with hundreds more dead or dying. Sections of the maintenance building collapsed and most of the vehicles and equipment were destroyed?EUR??,,????'??+tractors; bucket trucks; end-loaders; bush hogs; weed eaters; and golf carts.

Before the hurricane, City Park had 260 employees, a combination of full-time, part-time and seasonal workers, but by Aug. 2006 all but 23 employees were laid off. In all, the park sustained an estimated $43 million in damages.

On one Sunday alone in 1839, 10 duels were fought under the ?EUR??,,????'??Dueling Oaks,?EUR??,,????'?? home today to New Orleans City Park.

The garden?EUR??,,????'???s structures survived the storm. The plant collections in the Botanical Garden?EUR??,,????'???s greenhouses should have been okay, but during the evacuation of the city, electrical power was lost, which result in a heat buildup in the greenhouses and the disabling of the automatic watering systems?EUR??,,????'??+the orchids, staghorn ferns, bromeliads and other container plants were lost.

The initial focus was restoring the plant collections and building repair. Aided with a $1.1 million grant from the Azby Fund, the Botanical Garden was restored and 50,000 people attended the park?EUR??,,????'???s annual holiday light show?EUR??,,????'??+?EUR??,,????'??Celebration in the Oaks?EUR??,,????'???EUR??,,????'??+in December 2005, less than four months after the hurricane struck. The NOBG reopened to the public on March 4, 2006.

The Plano Demonstration Garden was a gift of the Professional Landmen?EUR??,,????'???s Association of New Orleans. On display are seasonal displays of vegetables surrounded by fruit trees, interplanted with beds of annuals, perennials, roses and vines. The gazebo was a starter shelter for one of the park?EUR??,,????'???s golf courses and simply transported here to add a touch of architecture to the garden. The bowl-shaped structure is a sugar cane kettle (circa 1850) once used for boiling sugar cane to make molasses.

?EUR??,,????'??Everything that is currently open in the park is open either because donors have opened up their check books or through the sweat equity of thousands of volunteers who have invested tens of thousand of hours in the restoration of the park,?EUR??,,????'?? notes Mr. Hopper.

By the end of summer 2006, the park had raised over $5.6 million and donors had sponsored the planting of over 50 trees. Over 4,000 volunteers have invested more than 20,000 hours to help restore the park.

NOBG received a $1.3 million grant from the Azby Fund, which helped keep needed staff and replant the gardens. The Lord and Taylor Rose Garden, also called the Parterre, is the most formal area in the garden. The Parterre?EUR??,,????'???s clipped yaupon (Ilex vomitoria ?EUR??,,????'??nana?EUR??,,????'???) hedges impart a rigid formality on the roses contained within the beds. The center beds contain several cultivars of modern roses. The modern roses are not very well suited to the heat and humidity of New Orleans, says Mr. Soniat and are high maintenance flowers. Black spot is one problem. Mid-April is the best bloom. The roses are cut back in August and they bloom again in late September, early October. They perform best in early spring (April to June) and fall (October to December). Modern roses require weekly spraying and replacement every three years to remain attractive. Old roses, such as those planted around the edge of the Parterre, perform much better in this climate. The Parterre is separated from the rest of the garden by Camellia sasanqua hedges around the sides with Japanese yew around the Shriever fountain (1932).

City Park?EUR??,,????'???s 2018 master plan is still alive but awaits. In an Aug. 2006 report, John Hopper stated that FEMA is responsible for restoring the park to its pre-Katrina condition and ?EUR??,,????'??will pay for 90 percent of eligible expenses.?EUR??,,????'?? However, he notes: ?EUR??,,????'??What FEMA considers eligible and what City Park considers eligible is the subject of much debate.?EUR??,,????'?? For example, as of Mr. Hopper?EUR??,,????'???s August 23, 2006 report, FEMA had reimbursed only $216,000. The park is insured with the state and also carries business interruption insurance. Not surprisingly, Louisiana indicates it does not have the funds to pay off insured damages.

City Park suffered estimated damages of $43 million.