WE ARE BACK FROM OUR LONG BREAK!
We will be launching our "shop" button soon where you can purchase
flower arrangements (either for pick up or delivery)
and our "Flowers By The Bucket" option!
For now, please inquire through our "contact" button.
Thank you all for your continued support-- we can hardly wait to show what we've been growing!
FLORA NARRA is a home garden inspired by the wild and lush Southern Flora.
NATIVE FLOWERS/ SPECIALTY CUT FLOWERS / EDIBLE FLOWERS / HERBS
OUR GARDENS
* UPDATE!* We recently moved into our new home in the
Fillmore (Vista Park) neighborhood in New Orleans!
-
This is both an exciting and challenging time for us and we are extremely grateful for everyone's continued support over the years since the birth of FLORA NARRA in 2017.
OUR PRACTICES
No matter where we grow our flowers we treat each garden the same—always with love and intention.
We believe in nurturing our soil with as much thought and intention as we put into our flowers because happy soil makes for happy flowers, and happy flowers make people happy!
We grow most of our flowers starting from seed, use organic amendments to feed our living soil, and source compost locally when supplementing our own humble backyard compost. We do not use harmful chemical-based pesticides rather we rely on beneficial insects to tackle on the problem—just as nature intended to!
OUR MISSION
We're committed to keep learning about the land in which we call home—of what was here long before us and what will continue to be here with or without us.
We find inspiration in walks around our neighborhoods, local parks, bayous, countrysides and anywhere else the wild blooms freely. Think vines crawling up houses and buildings, shrubs bursting through fences, wildflowers blooming in between cracks in sidewalks, native plants thriving on the edge of the swamp—the list goes on and we still haven't even scratched the surface of what else is there for us to see.
We live and we learn. As we keep learning, we also refract that back out into the world. We openly share information about our native flora, sustainable gardening practices and an over all sense of well-being both as humans and as gardeners—with the intention of inspiring others in enjoying the perks of gardening—that is the heart of
FLORA NARRA.
Southern Flora
BEGINNINGS
Charmaine Lugtu was born in the Philippines before immigrating to New Orleans, LA with her family. Eleven years later, feeling the undeniable urge to reconnect with her roots, she dropped out of College, sold her car and bought a ticket to the Philippines, where she stayed for 7 life-changing months.
Back in her homeland, while she initially continued to pursue her education and advancement in visual arts, Charmaine soon found herself cross-trekking and island-hopping, as she was naturally drawn to the countryside and the lush tropical islands of the Philippines. Fully immersed in the bounty of this natural beauty, she began to realize her calling in those sacred moments where art, life, and nature intertwined: a life surrounded by flora.
Soon after her life-changing trip, Charmaine returned to New Orleans to pursue studies in Horticulture and in 2016 she received her Horticulture Certificate. With her hands taken root in the ground.. into the rabbit hole she went.. continuing her studies by diving into the sustainable practices of Permaculture and receiving her Permaculture Design Certificate from OAEC, in Occidental, California in 2017.
Charmaine is a licensed Florist in the state of LA. She currently lives in the Fillmore
(Vista Park) neighborhood in New Orleans along with her life partner Christopher and cat, Spyboy.
Bohol, Philippines 2012,
the island where my Grandmother was born.