Patio Planters of the Vieux Carré was formed by French Quarter residents in 1946 as a garden club, focused on sharing new plants. Over the years, the group brought tropical and semi-tropical exotics to courtyards. Bromeliads and orchids grew with more traditional banana trees, oleander, althea and ginger. Fig and other vines were esparliered on brick and masonry walls, which replaced the last of the horizontal board fences from the 1880s.