Posted December 19, 2013 at 9:33 AM by Amanda Frentz

My name is Geneva and I am your guest blogger today! I started working at the Park a month ago as the new Major Gifts and Planned Giving Officer but have spent much of my last 12 years, in the city, enjoying all the Park has to offer. I have been pleasantly surprised, over the last month, at all the things I don’t know about the Park or never slowed long enough to notice.

Traditionally I am one of those people who laments the fact that New Orleans only has one season…I like to call it GREEN. Spending every day in the Park has opened my eyes to a whole new world and I am very happy to say that, while there is still a LOT of green in the Park this time of year, there are also yellows, reds, oranges and browns of all shades. Throughout the day, as the light changes, the colors often take my breath away as I go about my daily work.

Some of the trees to look for are Crape myrtles, Ginkgo, Japanese maples, and Cypress trees. They can be found throughout the Park, on the golf course and in the Botanical Garden. For a quick walk through Fall take a stroll through the Botanical Garden or walk the Roosevelt Mall.
The trees that do change color are each unique and quite fascinating. Ginkgo, also spelled gingko and also known as the maidenhair tree, is a unique species of tree with no close living relatives. The ginkgo is a living fossil, recognizably similar to fossils dating back 270 million years.
Here is a poem about Fall and its beautiful changing colors. I hope to see you wandering the Park soon, ‘Fall’ ing in love with it again!

A Crown of Autumn Leaves
By ANNIE FINCH
For Mabon (fall equinox), Sept. 21
Our voices press
from us
and twine
around the year's
fermenting wine
Yellow fall roars
Over the ground.
Loud, in the leafy sun that pours
Liquid through doors,
Yellow, the leaves twist down
as the winding
of the vine
pulls our curling
voices—
Glowing in wind and change,
The orange leaf tells
How one more season will alter and range,
Working the strange
Colors of clamor and bells
In the winding
of the vine
our voices press out
from us
to twine
When autumn gathers, the tree
That the leaves sang
Reddens dark slowly, then, suddenly free,
Turns like a key,
Opening air where they hang
and the winding
of the vine
makes our voices
turn and wind
with the year’s
fermented wine
One of the hanging leaves,
Deeply maroon,
Tightens its final hold, receives,
Finally weaves
Through, and is covered soon
in the winding
of the vine—
Holding past summer's hold,
Open and strong,
One of the leaves in the crown is gold,
Set in the cold
Where the old seasons belong.
Here is my crown
Of winding vine,
Of leaves that dropped,
That fingers twined,
another crown
to yield and shine
with a year’s
fermented wine.
Geneva Longlois-Marney
Major Gifts and Planned Giving
gmarney@nocp.org