From floodwaters to fences: The story of Louisiana's Katrina rose
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Peggy Martin stands next to her namesake rose growing along a fence at her home in Gonzales. Photo: Courtesy of Eddy Perez/LSU
The Peggy Martin rose is more than a pretty bloom in Louisiana gardens. It's a reminder of the region's rebirth after Hurricane Katrina.
Why it matters: The flower, also called the Katrina rose, survived two weeks in the storm's floodwaters and emerged from the muck.
The big picture: The rose is named after Peggy Martin, who had a collection of more than 450 antique roses in lower Plaquemines Parish, writes Tobie Blanchard with the LSU AgCenter.
- Katrina flooded her property with 30 feet of saltwater, Martin told Blanchard. Her parents, who lived next door, died in the storm.
- When Martin went home, everything was black, Blanchard writes, but she saw a tiny splash of green from a nameless rose.
Zoom out: She got the rose in 1989 as an unidentified pass-along cutting from her hairdresser, who said it was from a Garden District plant, according to Country Roads magazine.
- It's a fast-growing climbing rose with small pink blossoms that loves arbors, fences and pergolas.
- After the storm, Martin relocated to Gonzales. LSU grad Bill Welch, who was also a Southern Living columnist, proposed naming the rose after Martin and using it for storm recovery efforts, Blanchard writes.
- Sales of the rose helped restore historic gardens damaged by Katrina and Rita in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, according to Southern Living.
What's next: Keep an eye out this fall for the rose's second round of blooms.
Go deeper: Full story from LSU AgCenter.