Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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. Konmtnn b ■AKl *■ ■ ► W ■ B mr wvav,m'3Tironsdiretrxorn T'lrvjrjdf .Vlrii.'.r J- GJi'rr.'jWn fttri)vtrr jn tiv Alln'm Anra 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 Inventory 1 REDUCTION LAN* 1ASTER,JiYllISIC COMPANY PrafSf Granos ON SALEf (teby Grathte from JJj'giffll Ptftjos horn f 1295 Uwd Pianos Jmm 5906 GAINESVILLE, GA To Make Room for 2m, all NEW HANGS & ORGANS are now priced at 20-50% OFF ©YAMAHA CMS .J&r- BECH5TEIN K3W3i ©STOHlf & QjUUC Call 770-53fc-B74l of 1-8UQ-252-1999 today for inEo rotation. or Visit North East Georgia's Largest Piano Shnwrnnm ] „A M AN1TR. £VU !3[f COMPAQ n T £2K5» ffetfMuudf Oafry w dw 1W1 foQEjs if an Laha-iS/cm- Ma») ■ Lais ITT f\M. lanca 1] 3 II ermusjf.coi