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Chicago Peace

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Chicago Peace … Originally where this rose is now planted I grew Love and Peace – a rose that descended from Chicago Peace. My Love and Peace didn’t make it this year. It gave up the ghost in late spring. I think our mild winter and lack of winter protection did it in.

I wish I still grew Love and Peace, but I’m very happy with the rose that I chose to replace it. Isn’t Chicago Peace lovely? I quite enjoy the multicolored flowers.

Sorry about my GTS post being late today. We’ve had a huge snow storm here in Toronto, getting about 40 cm of snow in one day. (that’s close to 16 inches) The weather people are saying that this is the most snow we’ve got in one day since 1944! I believe the storm had something to do with our cable and internet going out sometime early this morning and not coming back on till much much later in the day.

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That’s one long Stamen

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This weeks theme is LONG

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My hibiscus shrub has the most beautiful coral colored flowers.

This is a macro of one of the blooms. Note the extremely long pollen covered stamen.

I brought the Hibiscus indoors sometime in October. The plant is currently sitting in a south facing window in one of our upstairs bedrooms and appears to be doing well. I lost a hibiscus last winter so I’m hoping that this one manages to survive it’s stay indoors.

Cut your energy bill this holiday season by switching to LED Holiday lights

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We had our first snow last week. That’s a little early for Toronto, especially to have snow that actually stayed on the ground for a few days.

I was taken by surprise by the early snow and it made me realize that we’d better get the Christmas lights out and start decorating the house before it snows again and makes it difficult to get the lights up.

Have you started decorating your home for the holidays yet?

We’ve pretty much switched over to LED Christmas lights. With the cost of energy these days it’s nice to know that LED lights are 90% more efficient than standard incandescent lights.

Did you know that this past Spring Toronto’s CN Tower, one of the tallest free standing structures in the world, got new lights? Yes, they equipped the tower with thousands of LED lights. Now at night the CN Tower is lite up with a variety of colors or pasterns. I think they change the colors and patterns daily. By patterns I mean that on Canada Day the tower might be light up with a flag totally made of LED lights or on the 4th of July there could be an American Flag showing. It’s beautiful. Plus, it doesn’t cost the city very much to light the tower. Only $1000 per month! That’s pretty good for a gigantic public building and tourist attraction.

So … if even cities are starting to use LED lights maybe you should too if you haven’t already made the switch.

A few other things that I like about using LED Holiday lights is the fact that the bulb is encased in a very hard plastic which makes them extremely durable. I’m sure you know how easy it is to break glass incandescent bulbs – especially the ones you use outdoors! LED lights are also long lasting. They’ll operate for 50,000 hours or more! That means years and years of use before you need to replace a string of lights.

As you know we try to be as green as possible with our gardening and the products we use around our home. I consider LED lights a green product because they are energy efficient and also because they last so long.

How many of you already use LED Holiday lights?

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