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Page 8
At Home in Houston County, Wednesday, March 8.1995
New golden lantana grows well anywhere in Georgia
By PAULA. THOMAS
Georgia Extension Service
Mounds of glow ing golden flowers is the
best way to describe New Gold lantana
(Lantana camara ’New Gold') in the land
scape.
This 1995 Georgia Gold Medal Winner
puts on a profuse display of golden yellow
flowers all summer. It grows well in
Georgia, too. New Gold lantana looked
great during the extremely dry. hot summer
of 1993. And plants in Albany looked great
throughout the 1994 flood and bloomed the
rest of the season.
It also attracts butterflies, and. best of all.
is resistant to deer browsing! Its peak
blooming period, in August, just happens to
coincide with the Olympic Games, and its
color and drought resistance should assure
this Gold Medal Selection will be used
heavily in 1996.
New Gold prefers day-long full sun and
is excellent for sunny borders and dry. com
Taking care of heating ducts can reduce fuel costs
Special to the T-J
Many homeowners are surprised to learn
their heating and air-conditioning systems
may be wasting energy.
Here are some of the things you can do to
save money on energy bills:
• Change the filters. Clogged filters
make your system work harder. This in turn
New product fights crabgrass
Special to the T-J
If you’re one of those homeowners who
gets grumpy about crabgrass. you have
plenty of company Over five million
households in the U S that don't hire a pro
rssional lawn care service have had crab
-rass in the past two years
Simply put. crabgrass is an annual grassy
weed, meaning seeds dropped last summer by
your crabgrass (or your neighbor's crabgrass)
are in the ground waiting to germinate in the
spring when the ground is thoroughly w arm
Because crabgrass continually emerges
throughout spring and summer, homeown
ers who don’t use a weed preventer may
f'ght a constant battle with the grassy weed
all season long. Eliminating crabgrass after
it's grown can require many applications o f
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wayne McDaniel
Operations Manager
Route 4, Box ffO Fort Wusy, 6a 3/030
mercia! street-side planters. You can also get
spectacular color displays by planting New
Gold on sunny embankments, in hanging
baskets and along parking lot islands.
New Gold lantana looks great in combi
nation with other annuals, especially when
grown in front of large plantings of bright
red Salvia coccinea, or tall, blue Saliva
guaranitica. It also looks great with other
heat tolerant annuals and perennials such as
red zinnias, pink petunias and Verbena
bonairiensis.
New Gold lantana has few pest and dis
ease problems, which makes this an easy
care selection. One small cutting will grow
fast, forming a dense carpet of yellow flow
ers spreading 12-18 inches across and eight
to 10 inches tall.
In landscapes, plant established four-inch
pots of New Gold lantana on 24-inch cen
ters. It will perform in shallow, dense, clay
soil and doesn’t need special care once
established.
uses more energy. Change them at least
twice a year—spring and fall.
• Stop the leakage. Sheet metal duct sys
tems waste energy because they leak. After
cleaning the duct surface, seal up the joints
with a high-quality duct tape from the hard
ware store, then insulate.
Wrap the sheet-metal ducts with a 2"
a post-emergent herbicide which must be
timed correctly. Even then, results are not
usually satisfactory.
To avoid hassling with crabgrass this
year, use a weed preventer that stops it from
ever emerging. Many lawn experts recom
mend a product containing Team herbicide,
which requires only one springtime applica
tion for summer-long control.
It's best to apply this grassy weed pre
venter in early spring, generally when soil
temperature is between 52 and 55 degrees
(your local extension agent can provide this
information). One application provides 12
weeks of control.
Because you apply a weed preventer
only once, it s less expensive and less time
consuming to use.
Cm (/&'
/ (800) 540-2361
t (9(2) 825-5596
We're There When
You Need Us!
However, its performance will be
enhanced if you use good flower bed prepa
ration techniques. Adding organic material
to the garden or planter is especially helpful.
Two applications of general garden-type
granular, balanced fertilizer such as 8-8-8
works well. Early-May and mid-June appli
cations will ensure rapid growth the rest of
the season. Late-summer applications aren’t
necessary.
New Gold blooms consistently from
early May through October and requires no
deadheading or pruning. It doesn’t produce
large amounts of seed or weedy runners as
some species do in Florida. Whiteflies,
though they seem not to affect the plant’s
performance. And it irresistible, so plan
accordingly.
New Gold lantana is one of the easiest
to-grow annuals now on the market, and it’s
ideally suited for Georgia gardens. Given its
drought, flood, disease and deer resistance
and its ability to perform well in poor soil.
thick fiberglass duct wrap blanket insula
tion, following the manufacturer's recom
mended installation procedures at all times.
• When you build or renovate, insist on a
fiberglass duct system These do not use metal
and are made from rigid fiberglass insulation
boards formed into rectangular or round ducts.
These duct systems have built-in energy
Beat The Rush!!!
Pre-Spring work
type push
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Perry True Value
We re cpsn Sundays ♦ 1203 Main St, • Perry * 987-0211
this plant truly deserved the Georgia Gold
Medal! Put some New Gold in your garden
and count on a winning season
(Paul Thomas is a horticulturist special
izing in floriculture with the University of
Georgia Extension Service.)
savings and when properly installed, have
relatively air-tight joints that eliminate leak
age common with sheet metal ducts.
For a free booklet. How Your Ductwork
Can Save Energy Dollars And Reduce
Pollution, write North American Insulation
Manufacturers Association, 44 Canal Center
Plaza, Suite 310, Alexandria, Va. 22314.
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