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PAGE 8A -- THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2007
Talking To Santa
Brandon Veal gets a chance to tell Santa Claus what he wants 11, at Commerce Elementary School. Children were treated to
for Christmas during the Commerce Kiwanis Club and Commerce supper, entertainment, a visit with Santa and each child received
Key Club’s annual children’s Christmas party Tuesday night, Dec. a number of gifts from the Kiwanis Club.
Hellebores: Deerproof Winter Beauties For Shade
By Fil Jessee
If the lyrics for the Austrian-Ger
man folksong “Edelweiss” were re
vised to fit growing conditions in
north Georgia, the featured alpine
“blossom of snow” would prob
ably be hellebores instead.
Four species of this European
and west Asian perennial are de
pendable midwinter bloomers in
our climate zone, great for shade,
and totally distasteful to the local
deer population.
Like the much smaller edelweiss,
a tiny sunflower relative that often
pokes through mountain ice and
snow when no other plant dares,
hellebores are unaffected by our
worst winter weather. In fact, they
seem to thrive on it.
As a bonus, the tough leathery
foliage is attractive and palm-like
and, so, the plants have year-round
interest in shade. There, they are
perfect companions to hostas,
ferns, hardy begonias, other wood-
land perennials, and reseeding an
nuals like impatiens.
The best known of the Hellebo-
rus species is probably H. niger,
popularly known as the Christmas
or Lenten rose. However, I’m not
sure how it acquired the Christ
mas nickname, for it certainly
doesn’t resemble a rose and sel
dom opens its first flowers until
January and early February On
the other hand, the plants often
begin to form buds as early as
Thanksgiving.
The individual flowers of the
Christmas rose normally emerge
light green and gradually fade to
pure white. They are often speck
led with orchid-like pink, purple or
burgundy spots near the centers.
Hybrids, however, can display a
similar range of color in the petals
as well and some of the newest in
troductions are double.
In addition to variations of the
original Christmas rose, other spe-
cies offer special interest more in
their evergreen foliage than in their
flowers. These include the Cor
sican and Bear Claw hellebores,
which offer finer textured palmate
leaves on taller stems.
Typically, most hellebores grow
from 12-24 inches in height, and
prefer dappled shade like that
found beneath deciduous hard
woods. And though they can hold
their own in clay, all prefer a rich
organic and acidic soil. If the dirt
is well-drained and suitable for
azaleas and rhododendrons, it’s
generally just right for hellebores
as well.
While camellias usually drop
petals after four or five days, hel
lebores hang on to theirs for an
exceptionally long time. Conse
quently, hellebore blooms can re
main in full glory from February
to May.
Thankfully, I have never found it
necessary to spray hellebores with
deer repellant. Even when these
animals are desperate enough to
munch on English ivy and hydran
gea tips, they seem to avoid helle
bore foliage and blooms without
exception.
If these plants have any weak
ness at all, it’s probably in the fra
gility of their stiff stems and foli
age. Hard rains, wind, and even
pea-sized hail won’t hurt them.
Playful dogs, small children and
falling tree limbs in spring and
summer can, however, and dam
aged foliage will not be replaced
with fresh until late autumn. So, do
keep this in mind in selecting opti
mum planting sites.
Fil Jessee lives in Braselton, where
and is a freelance journalist. He is a
Georgia Certified Plant Professional
with experience in ornamental horti
culture and landscape design. Reader
questions relating to gardening can
be sent to Fil Jessee at filwrites@aol.
com.
Family Haircare
Bill Wood, Owner /f?
Walk-Ins Welcome
Wood Barber Shop
581 Ila Road, Lot #1, Commerce
(706) 335-5392 • Mon.-Fri. 8-6
We Pay Top Dollar
chI All |iiri5d. silver, diiLii'Hmil
paper money and sporr^ memom bitia
foe Knows Coins!
^ ■ _ 1630 LexirptDn Rd.
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321 Pottery Factory Drive, Commerce — acro&s from OUT&ACK 6TEAK House
Sorry: Water Was
Used, So Company
Has To Pay The Bill
No one is sure what hap
pened to 4.8 million gallons of
water at the John Rooker & As
sociates building at Dry Pond,
but Rooker must still pay the
$24,000 water bill.
That was Rooker’s bill for Sep
tember. Elbert Rivers came on
the company’s behalf to argue
its case for an adjustment to
the Jackson County Water and
Sewerage Authority Thursday,
Dec. 13.
He was unsuccessful.
Rivers, and Ken Phillips of
Phillips Landscaping, argued
that it was impossible for the
company to have used that
much water without some vis
ible sign of erosion or other
damage.
A previous bill showed usage
of 431,000; the company used
1.5 million gallons in the Sep
tember billing period.
When the $24,000 bill came
in, company officials began
searching for probable causes,
finding a broken half-inch line
in their irrigation field.
“We accept responsibility for
what happened out there, but
we just don’t feel it was pos
sible that during September we
could use that much water,” Riv
ers told the authority.
But Fred Alke, the authority’s
in-house engineer, presented
an argument showing the high
probability that Rooker used
the water. The lynchpin of his
argument was that the author
ity had the meter tested and
found to have an accuracy rate
of 77.5 percent — it was 2.5 per
cent slow. He also agreed with
the company’s position that
the busted half-inch pipe was
not the problem, but suggested
that the irrigation system could
have used all of the water.
“Four point eight million gal
lons is not an unreasonable
amount of water to put on that
site,” he said. “We need to be
paid for the water that passed
through that meter.”
The authority agreed to waive
any late fees applicable to the
bill.
Authority Gives OK
To Wait On Sewer Plant
West Jackson developer John
Buchanan is putting a 400-plus
residential development on the
back burner due to the housing
crunch.
“Wendell Butler and I are
going to sit this one out for
a few months and see how
it turns out,” Buchanan told
the Jackson County Water
and Sewerage Authority last
Thursday night.
He was referring to a develop
ment on Hwy. 60, bordered by
New Cut Road on the south and
Pocket Road on the north.
He came before the authority
because he said Jackson County’s
Planning Department told him
he had to build a fully functional
waste treatment plant for the site
before it would issue any build
ing permits for the houses. His
original timetable was to start
construction of the waste plant at
about the same time as he started
building houses.
“They want the modular plant
built and in operation before
any building permits are issued,”
Buchanan said.
“The big issue for us is because
we’re looking at a $2 million to
$3 million investment, is the inter
est,” Buchanan said. “If we build
the plant early, the plant would sit
idle for a year before it would get
any use.”
Chairman Hunter Bicknell con
curred with Buchanan’s reason
ing.
“It seems kind of foolhardy to
build a plant that’s going to sit idle
for a year,” he commented.
The authority’s manager, Eric
Klerk, pointed out that compo
nents of the waste plant would
start breaking down if it stood
idle. He suggested that the author
ity recommend to the Planning
Department that Buchanan be
allowed to defer construction of
the plant until he begins building
houses.
The authority approved a
motion by member Alex Bryan to
authorize Bicknell to draft a letter
to that effect.
Dr. Neelagaru, M.D. (Dr. Neel)
N. Neelagaru, M.D. (Dr. Neel) is
now associated with Northeast
Georgia Medical Center,
Gainesville, Georgia and will do all
Invasive Cardiology Procedures at
this facility.
Commerce Cardiology Clinic
Call 335-2000 for appointment
Vend op
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