“It’s kind of like a new life, or a new beginning, every spring,” said Margaret John, vice president of the Red River Crossroads Association, which puts on the festival. “It’s a community effort to beautify our part of north Caddo Parish and to give back to the community.

Our woody plants (azaleas, camellias, abelia, distylium, sunshine ligustrum ...) took a hit. These plants – although sometimes evergreen – are likely going to defoliate. The brown leaves will fall off. However, we see that most of the woody stems are still green and very much alive.

“Our biggest concern that has really been occupying my time is the rain event and worrying about Cross Lake,” Arceneaux said. “We dodged the major ice storm. That was very good news. It appears if we have flooding, it will be relatively minor flooding. We don’t think the lake is going to get to the level that’s going to be a tremendous threat.