From floodwaters to fences: The story of Louisiana's Katrina rose
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.
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