Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2C
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017
Winter is best time
to prune summer
flowering shrubs
By Si. aron Dowdy
and Merrit Melancon
University of Georgia
The calendar says Jan
uary. but the weather for
the last few weeks has
been screaming March.
The unseasonable
warmth means a lot of
folks are getting in their
yards, looking for some
thing to keep them out
doors a little longer. It’s
the perfect time to prune
summer-blooming shrubs
and trees like crape myr
tles and tea olives.
There’s no one-size-
fits-all pruning rule: it’s
as much a science as it is
an art. There are, howev
er, some basic techniques
that can help novice
gardeners avoid mis
takes that can cause their
shrubs lasting damage.
“The keys to prop
er pruning are timing,
technique and the right
equipment,” said Bob
Westerfield, a University
of Georgia Cooperative
Extension horticulturist.
Go slow, be selective
and don’t prune angry.
It can be cathartic to
start lopping off tree
limbs left and right, but
pruning is not the time
to work out your anger
issues. Gardeners need to
know what to prune and
what to leave alone until
spring.
The time to prune sum
mer-blooming plants and
most woody ornamentals
is January through early
March. These include:
•Beautyberry
•Camellia
•Chaste tree (Vitex)
•Cranberrybush
(Viburnum)
•Crape myrtle
•Floribunda roses
•Fragrant tea olive
•Glossy abelia
•Goldenrain tree
•Grandiflora roses
•Japanese barberry
•Japanese spirea
•Mimosa
•Nandina
•Rose of Sharon
(Althea)
•Sourwood
•‘Anthony Waterer’
spirea
•Sweetshrub
You need to prune
spring-flowering plants
like azalea, forsythia and
dogwood soon after they
bloom.
“Of course, if you see
dead plant material, you
can prune that off any
time of year,” Westerfield
said.
Pruning is often nec
essary for your plants’
health. It’s a way to
remove disease and keep
your plants looking good.
It can also rejuvenate
older, overgrown shrubs.
Proper tools are a key
to successful pruning.
“Steer away from
gas-powered prun-
ers,” Westerfield said.
“Hand-operated shears
work wonderfully as
long as you keep your
instruments sharp so they
cut the plant instead of
tearing it.”
Hand pruners are per
haps your most essential
pruning tool.
“Buy the best quality
you can afford and you
won’t have to keep going
back to the store for a
new pair every year.” he
said. “The draw-cut. or
scissor, type is the most
useful.”
The anvil-type hard
pruners tend to crush
limbs rather than cut
them.
Use lopping shears
to prune small trees or
shrubs, like crape myr
tles, with a branch diam
eter of up to 1.5 inches.
For plants with branches
more than 2 inches thick,
use a pruning saw.
Heading or thinning
Now that you have the
proper tools, you’re ready
to start pruning. There are
two methods: heading
and thinning.
“Heading is when you
shear across the plant
nonselectively.” Wester
field said. “This method
is normally used on box
woods to give them that
formal look.”
Use heading sparingly,
as it causes new growth
to grow back too thick,
choking air and light
from the interior branch
es of the shrub.
Thinning is more use
ful and will lead to a
healthier shrub in the
spring. Gas or electric
hedge trimmers are noto
rious for causing thick
growth at the tips of
branches.
“Use thinning to prune
out sections of the plant
to allow more light and
air inside,” he said. “The
increased air reduces dis
eases and insects like spi
der mites.”
How you prune deter
mines the shape of your
plant.
“If you leave buds on
the outside, it causes the
plant to grow outward
and spread.” he said. “If
you leave buds on the
inside it causes the plant
to fill out from within.”
Fet in air and light.
Westerfield reminds
home landscapers to
always leave the bottom
of the plant larger than
the top while pruning so
that the plant forms a pyr
amid shape.
“If you don’t, you’ll
cause a canopy effect,
and no light will get in,”
he said.
Make your cuts at a
slant, too, and at a frac
tion above the bud. The
slant will allow water to
roll off the newly cut sur
face.
Don’t use pruning
paints.
“They’re unnecessary
and may slow the cuts’
healing,” Westerfield
said.
Complement pruning
by going easy with the
fertilizer. You want your
plants to put any stored
energy they have into
healing, not into sending
new shoots.
UGA Extension will
offer an in-depth prun
ing workshop from 9 a.m.
to 3 p.m. on February
10 at the UGA Griffin
Campus. The cost of the
workshop is $59 and
includes lunch, snacks
and printed materials. For
more information, email
Beth Home at bhome@
uga.edu or call 770-228-
7214.
UGA Extension has a
number of free, online
publications with dia
grams that can help gar
deners figure out which
plants need pruning,
when pruning is neces
sary and what techniques
are needed for each shrub.
Go to extension.uga.edu/
publications and search
“pruning” or call your
local Extension office at
1-800-ASK-UGA1.
Sharon Dowdy is a
news editor with the Uni
versity of Georgia Col
lege of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Merritt Melancon is a
news editor with the Uni
versity of Georgia Col
lege of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
The colorful life of Dave Plant
During the last full moon. I
was standing outside with time to
reflect. Sobering and
light-hearted thoughts
kept flashing about.
First, the respite
allowed for an opportu
nity to connect the twin
kling stars to a factoid
that I had come across
recently.
If you have appreci
ation for the meaning
of light years, you are
overwhelmed when you
consider that with the
time it takes for the light
of some stars to reveal their bright
ness to us, they are long gone by the
time we see them.
Full moons always are a reminder
of an episode involving one of the
classic of all colorful characters who
have called Athens, Ga. home — the
late Dave Plant.
He was a World War II veteran who
returned from a stint as a prisoner of
war in Berlin after his plane had been
shot down over Germany. He never
knew if he would ever enjoy another
Varsity hot dog. a “taste of endear
ment” for this modest everyday man.
With life returning to normal, he
enrolled in classes with benefits from
the G.I. Bill.
The government would pay for
his education. One of the courses he
signed up for was chemistry. His
professor was none other than Dr.
Alfred Scott, who was a tall man (he
was Georgia’s captain and coach in
basketball in 1917-18).
Dr. Scott functioned daily with a
long stem cigarette holder clenched
between his teeth.
He was one of those campus lumi
naries who was tough and demanding
- totally without sympathy for any
student devoid of classroom due-dil
igence.
It turned out that the subject
of our story, the top-ranked
raconteur on campus, had, shall
we say, little compatibility
with the rigors of chemistry, its
complex formulas and less than
exciting labs.
Small talk at the Varsity was
much more edifying for Dave
Plant, who soon experienced a
debilitating problem. He was
not going to pass chemistry,
but to maintain the benefits
of the G.I. Bill, he could not
withdraw from class. He had to
post a grade, even if it were an “F.”
Plant did his best to sleep through
chemistry class right on up to the day
of the final exam.
When that day came. Plant walked
in with his blue book, sat down long
enough to sign his name, and then
marched to the front of the room and
handed over his signed document to
a grinning Dr. Alfred Scott who said,
“See you next quarter Mr. Plant?”
Whereupon, Plant matched the pro
fessor’s grin and said. “Dr. Scott, you
transferring to the business school,
too!”
The following vignette, which has
appeared in print before, brings us
back to the mention of a full moon.
Our delightful friend had a penchant
for playing cards, which competed
with any thought of an early-to-bed-
early-to-rise routine.
His charming wife, competent with
a serious bent for firm discipline, was
a patient woman but, in time, reached
enough-is-enough status. She told
him that if he came in late one more
time, she was going to lock him out
of the house. The threat did not res
onate.
Arriving home at midnight soon
thereafter, the doors, as promised,
were all locked tight and the reserve
key, which was hidden under a flower
pot for such emergencies, was miss
ing, making Dave aware that for the
moment he was homeless. Repeated
knocking on the door ensued, but
admission was not going to be grant
ed. She was teaching him a lesson.
He sat down on the steps and pon
dered his fate. Suddenly a thought
jolted him upright.
“Til get inside this house.” he
mused to himself.
Whereupon, with the full moon
beaming brightly, he took the lawn-
mower out of the garage and began
cutting the grass. As lights in the
neighborhood flickered on to see
what the commotion was all about,
he soon was safely inside.
Perhaps the best story about Plant,
an accomplished chicken mull cook,
came about on a Super Bowl Sunday
years ago when his good friend and
Bulldog fan nonpareil, John Terrell
asked Plant to prepare chicken mull
for a Super Bowl party.
One of the guests was the longtime
barbecue icon and Sanford Stadi
um concessionaire, the colorful Bob
Poss.
As the festive mood gained
momentum, Poss wandered into the
kitchen where Plant was doing his
due-diligence at the stove and began
making suggestions.
“You should include a little of this
and a little of that, a dash of this, a
pinch of that” kind of menu advice.
With that, Plant looked his friend
in the eye. “Hey Poss, we making
this to eat, not to sell.”
Loran Smith is a columnist for the
Barrow News-Journal. He is co-host
of the University of Georgia football
radio pre-game show.
loran
smith
Ben Fortson had a way about him
A while back, the chief
tax assessors from coun
ties throughout
Georgia asked
me to speak to
their gathering
at Jekyll Island.
We frequent the
Golden Isles but
we are normally
on St. Simons or
Sea Island, so it
had been a few
years since I had
been on Jekyll.
It is a beauti
ful island but my
favorite moment of discov
ery was learning that one
of its streets in the village
is named “Ben Fortson
Way.”
Most of you have prob
ably never heard of Ben
Fortson but let me tell you
a bit about him and what
he meant to a young girl.
“Mr. Ben.” as he liked to
be called, was a 24-year-
old graduate of Emory
University when, in 1928.
he was paralyzed in a car
accident.
For the rest of his 74
years of life, he was con
fined to a wheelchair. He
was appointed secretary of
state in 1947 to fill the
unexpired term of John
Wilson, who died in office.
Mr. Ben, never seriously
challenged, would also die
in the office, having served
33 years. For stu
dents of history,
he is remembered
in the “three-gov
ernor controver
sy of 1947” when
Eugene Talmadge
died before taking
the oath and two
men, including
his son, Herman,
claimed to be gov
ernor.
But no man could
be proclaimed gov
ernor without the great seal
of Georgia.
Mr. Ben, to keep it safe
while the mess was figured
out, tucked it under the
cushion of his wheelchair
and hid it there.
“Sitting on it like a set
ting of duck eggs,” the col
orful Mr. Ben later told
journalist Celestine Sibley.
I will always remember
Mr. Ben in my three youth
ful encounters with him as
a version of cantankerous
Mr. Potter in It’s A Won
derful Life.
He suffered no fools yet
he had a heart for children.
When I was 12, he spoke at
my 4-H camp.
He was old, withered
and no-nonsense but he
said something that day
that I have carried in my
heart ever since.
“Don’t ever let anyone
tell you that you can’t do
something,” he said.
“When I was paralyzed,
all the doctors declared
that I would live only a
short time. But I show
‘em. I outlived every one
of them.”
A few years later, I was
interning during the leg
islative season for a man
who would become one of
South’s great heroes. Lt.
Gov. Zell Miller. He is one
of my heroes, too. I had
gone to the basement to
obtain my photo I.D. when
I hurriedly rounded the
corner and collided with
Mr. Ben’s wheelchair. I
gathered myself up, scared
to death.
“Well, young lady,” he
thundered. “What brings
you to the capitol on such
a cold, icy winter’s day?”
I stuttered, explaining
that I was working in the
Ft. Governor’s office.
“Hmmm,” he mused.
“Well, good luck. You’ll
certainly need it!”
With that, he rolled away
down the marbled hall.
History has probably
long forgotten that the
Speaker of the House. Tom
Murphy, and the lieutenant
governor were warring in
a bitter battle of wills that
played out in tremendous
fury on newspaper front
pages daily.
During that session, the
House and Senate voted
to make “Georgia On My
Mind” the state song but
stipulated specifically that
it was the Ray Charles ver
sion.
Mr. Charles was invited
to sing the song to the
legislators and staff at the
capitol.
The actual footage
is used at the end of his
biographical movie.
I was there that day when
Mr. Ben, two months shy
of death, rolled up to the
microphone and drawled
in a deep baritone, “Mr.
Charles, I congratulate you
for you have done what
no one else has been able
to do. You have brought
the Speaker of the House
and our lieutenant gover
nor together on the same
platform!”
Ben Fortson Way. Yeah.
That’s perfect. He always
had a way about him.
Ronda Rich is a best-sell
ing Southern author. Visit
www.rondarich.com to
sign up for her free weekly
newsletter.
Braselton residents mull downtown ‘walkability’
By Al ex Pace
News-Journal Reporter
Braselton officials are look
ing for ways to make down
town more “walkable.” The
Braselton Downtown Devel
opment Authority held a
meeting last week to hear res
idents’ input on a “walkability
study” being completed by
the North Georgia Regional
Commission.
Over 20 citizens attended,
some of whom are residents
of the Keys Crossing Subdivi
sion located near downtown.
Many weren’t shy about what
that community wants.
“We want sidewalks,” said
several residents.
NGRC’s John Devine has
been working with the DDA’s
design committee on its goals
for the project. Devine went
through those goals at the
meeting, which include safety,
linking downtown, increased
interest for visitors and resi
dents, connectivity, increased
business patronage and quick
progress.
“We just want sidewalks,”
replied one attendee when
asked if there were any more
goals.
The group proposed
increased “bike-ability” and
other types of pathways.
The alternative paths for
transportation may cut down
on parking in the downtown
area, as locals could opt to
walk or ride a bike. It could
also link downtown to West
Jackson Primary School and
to the Braselton Library.
The project won’t come
without its challenges though.
Ga. 53 runs straight through
downtown and many cited
safety concerns over high
speed traffic on that road.
Attendees questioned if there
is a way to get traffic to slow
down and stressed the need
for more pedestrian cross
walks.
Devine later quizzed
attendees on what could be
done this year to improve the
downtown walkability.
“Don’t tell me sidewalks.”
he said. “Sidewalks...we
know.”
The group came up with 10
ideas, including:
•more quality, diverse busi
nesses and restaurants
•more parking
•downtown living
•streetlights
•roundabouts (possibly in
place of the light at Davis
Street)
•participating in Safe
Routes to School
•improving the look of
downtown with art, landscap
ing. streetscapes, etc.
•emergency poles with call
buttons
•benches
•signs to deter littering
Devine plans to come up
with recommendations and
maps to present to the DDA.
Any progress would depend
on the DDA. Braselton Town
Council and possibly the
Jackson County Board of
Commissioners and Georgia
Department of Transportation.
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