G&S Nursery Summer 2018 Newsletter

INSIDER
SUMMER 2018
AUTO
INNO-
VATION
DARING TO BE
Your next car is going to have
a few tricks up its sleeve...
DULL
WHAT’S INSIDE | THIS ISSUE
4 KILLDEER EGGS...
HURRICANE SEASON
CRAPE MYRTLE

Introducing:
Bryan Vogt
When it came time to shore
up our growing business in
the South Carolina area with a
locally based representative,
we turned to former customer
Bryan Vogt (pronounced Vote).
Bryan will be representing G&S
in the South Carolina, North
Carolina and northern Georgia
area.
He comes to us with 12 years
of experience in the landscaping
business, with a diverse
history ranging from managing
a branch of a large landscaping
company to being a government
horticulturist responsible for the landscapes of some of the most important
public spaces in Columbia, SC.
Bryan will be headquartered in Charleston, which is his home town. When he’s
not helping our clients get the plants they need, Bryan and his bird-dog, Rookie,
like to tramp around local woods and fields in search of quail and pheasants. He
also enjoys fishing and golfing.
Speaking of Birds....
KILLDEER NEST DISRUPTS PLANS FOR MUSIC FESTIVAL
OTTAWA, CANADA—Canada does not
mess around when it comes to protecting
the environment. So it came as a
major problem when a clutch of bird’s
eggs was discovered on the grounds
near the site of the planned stage of the
Ottawa Bluesfest just two weeks before
the festival was to take place.
Even though the killdeer species is
not under any threat of extinction, the
festival
planners
were nevertheless
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bound by environmental laws not to
disturb the nesting site, which meant
that construction of the stage—where
acts like Foo Fighters, Jethro Tull,
and Shawn Mendes were expected to
entertain a crowd of 300,000—had to
wait until a solution was found.
The story has a happy ending. Permission
to move the eggs was sought
and granted, and a professional nest
mover came to the rescue just in the
nick of time and the festival proceeded
as scheduled this summer. The kildeer
family were able to welcome their
hatchlings in a safer location.
Source: Ottawacitizen.com

STAYING FIT, EXPANDING,
AND SAYING
GOODBYE TO NATE
Most of
the people
I work with
started
here when
we still
were quite
young,
and many
of us are
Jorge at his bicycle desk
beginning
to bump into the reality that
we can no longer rely on youthful
metabolism to keep us in shape. It
starts when you look at yourself in
the mirror when you get out of the
shower in the morning and realize
that something’s wrong with the ol’
muscle tone.
As a result, there has been a move
afoot to get more serious about
diet and exercise. Some of us
have figured out ways to get a
little exercise in while working the
phones. Some of us have begun
to throw down challenges to others
in the same boat to see who
can eat healthy, and the guys in
Jacksonville have initiated a ritual
of breaking for a few minutes every
afternoon for a group stroll around
the office park. We’re hoping
these iifestyle changes will stave
off middle-age for many years to
come!
I’m delighted to report the continued
pattern of growth in our
company as we welcome our first
sales associate based in Charleston
SC. Bryan will be the local
representative to our present and
future clients up in that area of
South Carolina. We’ve also added
additional beds in the nursery to
be able to handle more inventory.
It won’t be too long now before
we are taking full advantage of
the land we moved onto not more
than a year ago!
Before I close this letter,
I want to say goodbye to
Nate Lynn, who is leaving
us to pursue an opportunity in
Texas. He’s been a sales rep with
us for about 2 years, and for all
the customers who have had the
pleasure of dealing with him, I am
sure they can attest that he is a
unique individual who will not be
soon forgotten!
Cheers!
Zack Kirsch
General Manager
386 754-0161
sales@gsnursery.com
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Automated Autos
The era of self-driving vehicles is closing in on us.
In a recent survey, 24% of respondents doubted that autonomous
cars would ever come to the point of becoming the majority of vehicles
on the roadways. The rest of respondents foresaw that it will
happen within the next 20 years.
Although the majority of Americans still need a lot of time to get used
to this eventuality, it’s only a matter of time before the technology
prevails and the roads are overtaken with cars and trucks that drive
themselves.
While this bold new technology has been front and center in the news,
there are a great many other innovations that are finding their way into
new car models that are less threatening to the status quo, yet kind of
exciting in their own right. If you haven’t shopped for a new car recently,
you may find yourself dazzled by all the intelligent innovations
that are continually being introduced into the modern fleet of automobiles.
Here are just a few:
Smartphone Keys
Since smartphones have made
themselves indispensable for all
the things they can do in addition
to making phone calls, why not
use them to lock, unlock and even
start your vehicle? Mercedes Benz
is among the first to make this
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feature available as an option in
the E and A class vehicles. With
the right model phone, you can
download your key and open
your car door by gently touching
the phone against the door
handle. Stow the
phone in a designated
tray on your
center console, and
you’re authorized to
start the car while
the phone charges
via an induction coil
inside the tray. Noncompliant
phones
can be fitted with
a key sticker that
makes the system
work.

Digital Headlamps
S-Class Mercedes are starting to feature smart headlamps with a
projection system that can transform the static beam of conventional
headlamps into a multitude of forms as dictated by driving conditions.
Imagine being able to cast a bright light on a dark country
road that changes shape as oncoming cars approach so the light is
never in the other driver’s eyes? That’s just the beginning. Sophisticated
sensors assess dangers and use the lighting system to alert
you by projecting lines, arrows and icons onto the road relevant to
the hazard ahead. Are there deer near the roadway up ahead? A
portion of the beam will shine in their direction along with an arrow
on the pavement to warn you that they are there. Is there a pedestrian
hoping to cross the street? You’ll know she’s there by the
behavior of the light, and if you slow to a stop to allow her to cross,
a patterned crosswalk will appear on the darkened pavement as a
signal to the pedestrian that it’s safe to cross.
As vehicles continue to get more sophisticated, safety tends to
improve. Crash death rates have dropped by nearly half since 1975
despite the modern plague of texting while driving.
Source: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/topicoverview
Facial Recognition
Owners of Subaru’s 2019 Forester
will soon discover what it feels like
to know someone or something is
watching them every time they get
behind the wheel. The system is
called Driver Focus, and the technology
is intended to detect driver
distraction and fatigue. It has the
capability of storing the driver’s
preferred seat, climate control and
mirror settings, which it will activate
upon first recognition of the driver’s
face. More importantly, it will warn
drivers when they begin to exhibit
signs of fatigue or distraction with an
escalating series of alarms.
5

Featured
Plant
TUSCARORA CRAPE MYRTLE
Lagerstroemia x ‘Tuscarora’
When you think of a southern
landscape, you think palm trees,
magnolias, azaleas, ...and crape
myrtles.
Crapes give you so much bang
for the buck with their abundant
and colorful flowers that last for
weeks in the summer, and will
even reward those who take the
time to remove the flower bracts
with a second bloom in the fall.
Pruning crepe myrtles is a controversial
subject. Most landscapers
look with scorn upon
those who take the tree down to
the base branches every winter,
which disfigures the graceful
form that nature intended. There
are enough cultivars available
with short growth patterns that
with smart planning, we all can
have our crapes without resorting
to drastic pruning.
The Tuscarora has a stately
15 gal: $65.00!
growth pattern and is a taller variety
that reaches 18 - 25 feet. It has coral
pink flowers and is prized for the gray
bark and the pretty colors the leaves
turn in the fall.
Prices good through the end of July 2018
“Few things are more satisfying than seeing your
children have teenagers of their own.”
—Doug Larson
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386 754-0161

HERE COMES HURRICANE
SEASON
Plan & Take Action
Everyone needs to be prepared for
the unexpected. Your friends and
family may not be together when
disaster strikes. How will you find
each other? Will you know if your
children or parents are safe? You
may have to evacuate or be confined
to your home. What will you
do if water, gas, electricity or phone
services are shut off?
Supplies Kit
Put together a basic disaster supplies
kit and consider storage locations
for different situations. Help
community members do the same.
Emergency Plans
Develop and document plans for
your specific risks.
Protect yourself and family with a
Family Emergency Plan.
Be sure to plan for locations away
from home.
Pet owners should have plans to
care for their animals. The Centers
for Disease Control & Prevention
offer information on animal health
impacts in evacuation shelters.
Evacuation
Review the FEMA Evacuation
Guidelines to allow for enough time
to pack and inform friends and
family if you need to leave your
home. FOLLOW instructions issued
by local officials. Leave immediately
if ordered!
Consider your protection options
to decide whether to stay or
evacuate your home if you are not
ordered to evacuate.
When waiting out a storm be careful,
the danger may not be over
yet...
Be alert for:
Tornadoes – they are often
spawned by hurricanes.
The calm “eye” of the storm – it
may seem like the storm is over,
but after the eye passes, the winds
will change direction and quickly
return to hurricane force.
Recover
Wait until an area is declared safe
before returning home.
Source: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/
ready.php
NOW YOU CAN ORDER PLANTS ONLINE!
For our customers who have benefitted from direct shipments of our core 4” material,
we now offer the ability to order direct from our website! Better still, we’re
now offering 54-pack cases of these core plants with FREE SHIPPING! Visit our
e-commerce page at https://gsnursery.shop to find out more!
4” Asiatic Jasmine 4” Big Blue Liriope 4” Mondo Grass 4” Dwarf Mondo Grass
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www.gsnursery.com

1550 SW Bedenbaugh Ln.
Lake City FL 32025
RIDDLE OF THE MONTH
ANSWER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN:
TOMMY
BAHAMA
Backpack
Cooler
Beach
Chair
A facebook friend who lives in Vienna,
Austria, shares this pic of a real menu
from a local eatery and wants to know,
“What’s wrong with this picture?”
LAST ISSUE RIDDLE:
The old woman gazed at the portrait
on her wall and remarked,
“Brother or sister, have I neither; but
that woman’s mother is my mother’s
daughter!”
Who’s portrait is it?
—HER DAUGHTER!
LAST ISSUE’S WINNERS
Bren Srickandl
Steve Hansen
Tracy Isaacs
Send answers to newsletter@gsnursery.com before August 5, 2018. All correct
answers will be entered into a drawing to win a prize!