I am a native who moved about an hour west from New Orleans twelve years ago. Two of my family members lived in Lakeview and my mother lives in Metairie, so I can offer you some information. The soil is alkaline, so acid loving plants such as gardenias are difficult to take care of. Your friend probably has no shade now that all of the trees were killed in Lakeview. Charvets and Perinos are both good and the stuff they sell does well in New Orleans. It is almost tropical - very wet - rains almost every day - in the summer. So plants that are susceptible to mildew or need good drainage or prefer dry climates don't perform well (like beebalm, rosemary, plum trees). Your abelia might be a problem for these reasons? It might get below thirty two every three years or so. Good landscape shrubs: indian hawthorne, hollies, knockout roses, sasanqua camellias (more tolerant of alkaline soil that regular camellias), red tip photinas, cleyera, pittosporum (variegated need some shade), encore azaleas and some of the old fashioned kinds seem to do okay, they sell ligustrums which have been pruned like crepe myrtles that are a very nice small tree. As far as evergreen perennials: sago palms, stokes aster, evergreen daylilies, liriope(vareigated is nice), dwarf agapanthus, dietes (african iris) and walking iris should also be evergreen. Lantana is perennial and attracts butterfiles but may not be evergreen. there is both a white and a lavendar type that are low growing. Cannas are perennial but die to the ground and are many gingers. Amaryllis is perennial but might die back. Good annuals are periwinkle (not the blue but the pink and red kind), blue daze in the warm months, pansies in the cool months. Loquat (japaneese plum) is a nice evergreen small tree, some pears do well with low chill requirements, many citrus trees are fine. There were never alot of butterflies in New Orleans. I think it is because of the mosquito spray programs, but maybe it has changed since I lived there. Gaura has returned for me for a few years also.

Try Banting's in Bridge City. It's all self-serve and they have stuff year round. Nice pots, fountains etc. I've had good luck with Pentas and Lantanas attracting butterflies this year in Uptown.