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Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 28D
-FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Sunday, April S, 1997
SPRING HOME IMPROVEMENT
Gold medal plants let shoppers take home a winner •
If you think Hollywood’s a tough
place to break in a new act, take a
look at your yard. The most spectacu
lar new landscape, plant in die world
would have an uphill struggle getting
into that place.
“It takes up to 10 years to get a
promising new plant into the trade as
a well-accepted landscape plant,” said
Gary Wade, a horticulturist with the
University of Georgia Extension
ServiCt.
The main hurdle a plant must
clear, Wade said, is a matter of supply
and demand. If it’s not popular, the
demand is low. So growers don’t sup
ply many. So it can’t become popular,
because few people ever see it.
That vicious supply-and-demand
Does your lawn need an apple a day?
• “An apple a day keeps the doctor
away.” Or so they say. We all know
that an apple alone isn’t all it takes
for good health. Our nutritional
needs are somewhat more complex
than that... and so are your lawn’s.
Most of us accept that our lawns
must be watered and mowed for
good health, but many of us think
that fertilizing our lawns is optional.
It really isn’t.
Grass has a tough life. Grass
plants are thrown into the soil,
crowded together in competition for
water and nutrients with each other,
neighboring trees and shrubs. For
grass plants, it’s survival of the
fittest, and lawns must be fertilized
for grass plants to have a chance at
survival.
Just as most people’s bodies
demand three square meals a day,
your lawn demands two square
meals a year—one feeding a month
after the lawn starts growing and
another feeding a month before your
lawn goes dormant. Spring fertiliza
tion is necessary to replenish your
lawn’s food reserves that have been
used in the first flush of spring
growth. During the fall, your lawn is
storing food in the root system to
allow it to grow underground during
the dormant season—so the fall fer
tilization is the most important one
of all.
What does your lawn need?
Grass plants need three essential
nutrients. Nitrogen is needed for a
healthy green color and grass blade
growth. Phosphorus promotes
healthy root development, and
potassium provides for disease and
drought resistance.
To determine how much of these
nutrients your lawn needs, John
Deere suggests that you conduct a
soil test by taking several random
plugs of soil from around the lawn.
cycle can hurt you by keeping great
plants in short supply. Some plants
be prized additions to your
landscape never make it there.
That’s why the Georgia Plant
Selection Committee, a group of
about 30 members that includes sci
entists with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences, came up
with a plan.
They created the Georgia Gold
Medal program.
Each year, Wade said, the com
mittee names a plant a Georgia Gold
Medal winner in each of four cate
gories: trees, shrubs, herbaceous
perennials and annuals.
This year’s, Georgia Gold Medal
Dig down six to eight inches for the
samples. Remove any grass blades,
roots and stems. Mix the soil and
label it “Lawn.” Send your soil sam
ples to a county extension agent,
university turf specialist or soil test
lab.
The lab results will tell you the
pH of your soil —if it’s too acid or
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Winners are New Wonder blue fan
flower, three-lobed Coneflower,
Yoshino Japanese cedar and pink
Chinese loropetalum.
The 1996 winners were wild indi
go, Purple Wave petunia,
Hummingbird Clethra and four supe
rior crape myrtles (Lipan, Sioux,
Tonto and Yuma).
The 1995 winners were blue anise
sage, New Gold lantana, Athena elm
and Annabelle hydrangea.
The 1994 winners were Bath’s
Pink dianthus, Homestead Purple ver
bena, Mt. Airy fothergilla and dwarf
forms of Japanese plum yew.
Nominated plants are tested at
tour Georgia sites: the Coastal
Gardens in Savannah and the UGA
too alkaline—plus the major nutri
ents your soil needs.
And while an apple a day may
not keep the doctor away - the lawn
doc, that is-proper nutrition and
proper care the whole year through
will help your lawn bounce back
from the stress of dry spells, insects
and disease.
experiment stations in Tifton, Athens
and Blairsville.
Herbaceous plants are tested for
one to two years and woody orna
mentals for three to five years.
To become a Georgia Gold Medal
winner, a plant must excel in five cri
teria: consumer appeal, low mainte
nance, survivability, ease of propaga
tion and seasonal interest
When the winners are decided,
Wade said, the committee lets nursery
and greenhouse growers know well in
advance. That way they can get a
good supply ready when the public
gets the word.
The program puts everybody on
the same track in the supply-and
demand cycle. So Georgia Gold
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Medal plants have something in com
mon with the growers, retailers, land
scapers and homeowners. They’re all
winners.
