FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, April 12, ISM
PAGE 12D
Georgia Gold Medal . f
Award-winning landscape: Plant Georgia Gold Medal
By Gary L Wade
Georgia Extension Service
The Olympic Games have come and gone.
But gold medals are still being awarded by
the Georgia Plant Selections Committee.
Organized in 1994, the committee is a
nonprofit group that promotes the produc
tion, sale and use of superior landscape
plants.
The group is comprised of environmental
horticulture professionals from across the
state. Each year they select an annual flower,
a herbaceous perennial, a shrub and a tree to
receive its Georgia Gold Medal Awards.
“It’s a real challenge to select the best
plant in each category from a long list of
nominees,” said Dottie Myers, a landscape
architect and committee member.
To be considered for an award, a plant
must meet stringent criteria.
It must have traits that make it superior to
other plants in its class. It must be durable,
low-maintenance and able to withstand many
planting situations and soil types.
Seasonal interest is a big factor, too. For
instance, if a plant has showy flowers and
attractive bark, pest-free foliage and brilliant
fall color, it moves higher on the list.
For growers and retailers to meet the
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demand for award-winning plants, they must
be easy to propagate, too.
Previous Georgia Gold Medal Award
winners include New Gold lantana (1995),
Bath’s Pink dianthus (1994), Purple Wave
petunia (1996) and Yoshino cryptomeria
(1997).
New Gold lantana is one of the hottest
summer annuals on the market today. It has
brilliant gold flowers that blanket the plant
from spring until fall frost. Its pest-free
foliage and drought tolerance are a plus in
Georgia.
Bath’s Pink dianthus is a perennial
ground cover for moist, well-drained sites. It
has fine-textured blue-green foliage and hot
pink spring blooms. Insects don't touch this
plant.
Purple Wave petunia is a summer annual
garden sensation. A single plant may spread
three feet in each direction and is blanketed
with magenta flowers all summer.
Yoshino cryptomeria is an evergreen tree
with extraordinary qualities, including soft,
fine-textured needles and great screening
ability.
The 1998 Georgia Gold Medal winners
are outstanding garden plants. You must try
them.
The annual winner is Athens Gem plec-
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trantus (Piectranthus ‘Athens Gem’). A won
derful summer annual, it's prized for its
coarse blue-green foliage, pest tolerance and
ability to thrive under harsh growing condi
tions.
The '9B herbaceous perennial winner is
Kalimeris (Kalimeris pinnatifida). A tough
plant that produces an abundance of tiny,
aster like flowers all summer. It requires
minimal routine care.
Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parvifzo
ra) is the 1998 Gold Medal winner in the
shrub category.
For a large specimen shrub in shady,
moist areas, bottlebrush buckeye can’t be
beat. The late-spring white blooms, shaped
like a bottle brush, rise above the foliage.
They make the plant a show stopper in the
landscape.
Last, but certainly not least, is trident
maple (Acer buergeranum), the 1998 Georgia
Gold Medal tree.
If you need a small shade tree for land
scape or patio containers, give trident maple
a close look.
It makes an excellent street tree for cities
and public parks, too.
Growing 25 feet tall at maturity, with a
canopy spreading to 35 feet, trident maple is
a good choice for today’s small uiban spaces
where a large oak simply won’t do.
You can learn more about these and other
Georgia Gold Medal winners on the World
Wide Web.
Go to the Georgia Extension Service
home page www.ces.uga.edu. Once there,
click on department listings and go to horti
culture.
(Gary Wade is an extension horticulturist
with the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
