New Orleans Botanical Garden
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The New Orleans Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located in the City Park, New Orleans, Louisiana. The garden was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. The Garden was closed while City Park's reduced staff cleaned, replanted, and lit the garden to open it as a portion of the annual Celebration in the Oaks lighting display during the 2005 Christmas season.
The garden was established in 1936 as a Works Progress Administration project during the Great Depression. It was at that time a rose garden. In the early 1980s it became a botanical garden, with over 2,000 varieties of plants set within stands of mature live oak trees. The conservatory contains a tropical rainforest collection and fern collection; theme gardens include aquatics, ornamental trees and shrubs, perennials, and the New Orleans Historic Train Garden.
The flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (see: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans) caused serious tree damage and the loss of the vast majority of the garden's collection which continues to be replaced.
