As far as our "new friend" goes, he's not trying to sell us anything yet. Part 2 is posted, and I think it's possible he (or she) is just giving us the benefit of knowledge about what goes on in China and elsewhere. I have a friend who's paid quite a bit for these "original" copies, and I bet she doesn't know they're sort of a paint-by-numbers. She'd probably appreciate the posting above. I am known to be naive, so I acknowledge maybe there will be a part 3 where we're given a sales pitch, but so far I don't see what Zhenwei stands to gain personally by the postings. So up to this time, I thank the poster for the information.

My reason for coming here was the same as aputz. At first I was furious about the ending and I wanted to see what others thought. But it has been days since I read it and it is still on my mind. Isn't that the best sign of a well-written book? Maybe his point is to leave us with more questions than answers. As frustrating as the ending is, the prose is beautiful and if the author writes another novel, I will certainly read it. I wasn't aware of the Hamlet connections and that has shed some new light on the themes. I haven't read Hamlet in so long, the parallels weren't instantly apparent. It has been a while since I have finished a novel and had it leaving me with this much thought. I recommend Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen if you are looking for another complex novel. And yes, the ending is happy. Thank you all for your thoughts.

hi Nik, I can't recall seeing that rose 'Lady Alice Stanley', but it is another amongst my Wills cigarette cards shown in the framed picture above, so I'm including it below for you to see. Yes I note Beales have it, but what is interesting I think, for those of us who I detect may not be interested in the modern Hybrid Tea, but could stretch ourselves to those from the early to mid 20th Century, or earlier, is that British Bred roses from this period are now being preserved at 2 gardens here, Evenley Wood garden and Thenford Hall [Lord Heseltine]... Evenley Wood on HMF at the instigation of now retired Robert Mattock, in conjunction I think with rosarian Mr Quest-Ritson... So far, 92 roses have been transferred with another 100 or so being sourced to add to the collection... I would imagine 'Lady Alice Stanley' and 'Mrs Henry Morse' would be amongst those, although not in the first wave... 'Mrs B R Cant' would be another I should think... the breeders included so far Pemberton, Paul, Hicks, Easlea, Chaplin, McGredy, and others... the earliest rose seems to date from the 1860's but most are from 1900-1930's... Some names evocative from the period are... Lady Sydney Eardley-Wilmot Mrs Curnock Sawday Princess Elizabeth of Greece lots of others including long lost Pemberton's like 'Sea Spray'.. considered extinct previously... and several others of his breeding.. Sea Spray I rather like 'Dinah'... Dinah So good I think that these are being preserved in this way... and one can ask for propagating material if interested... ..what a lovely rose... I hope you go for it...

In addition to removing the blooms, I also considered -but never decided- on pruning down by half or completely some tall specimens. Breaks my heart to prune them ahead of the damage so most of the time I do not preemptively prune. I have also considered keeping mulch to help absorb salty water (but that is no longer a problem in my current location) and discarding it afterwards. In non-salty floods, I plan to temporarily remove the mulch in order to speed up soil evaporation in the case of flooding though. I may also remove some metal barriers and rock barriers so the water will flow out of those areas and not get "stuck". Macrophyllas are salt tolerant but I do not know how much that applies to paniculatas.