I am Trish and I am a rose potaholic. I don't have a spot to grow them in the ground and I have taken up all the available spots at my parents'. Being English and Welsh respectively they have an innate love for roses so that is good. I started my rose obsession through tragedy. Our son was stillborn in the fall of 2006 (sorry to those who have heard this already) and being already into gardening in general I thought it would be nice to have something growing in his memory. I debated a tattoo but was too broke and could not find the 'perfect' image. I did a bit of research on "the language of flowers" and came across the white rose. I asked on gardenweb for recommendations for a nice white rose as some of you will remember. I ended up deciding on Madame Hardy but by then I was a goner anyway. Now I have used up all available space at my parents' and a few pots outside and still eyeing up more. Face it, we're sunk Aggierose.

Hi Diane. Well. I dug up lots of minis. Some that I lost tags for and ticked. Some I just resoiled and like starting over. But I still got lots of minis that I got last fall. Lots of Wells. Lots of Robbies. Franks. A couple of Clemons. Bridges. Both of Bob Martins. Some I got on fortuniana too. You know. I got my Giggles close. Like paired. Big Girls. But then I space the next set of roses. Anyway. I keep them clean inside. I cut off any canes that are not 95 percent A+. We live together fine with other roses. Then there are roses like, I lost tag but I think its Spring a Comin'. Got it from Robbie I am almost sure. Think its a Wells rose though. Anyway. I do love that rose. Its a perfect rose for children. Its almost throneless. But a rose that grows like that hogs and really gets too wide for this garden. I would like roses that grow like that...wide and sort of lax and free be moved to a separate garden. Roses that are stiffer and large and up growing I can handle the cut back and controlling. I think. Then I got a Mary Maud in there on fortuniana that I am fearful of moving that is a monster. I want it too moved out to more garden rose. Its such a heavy bloomer and so faithful I want to keep it. I grown new minis in two and 3 gallons since fall and not really feed a lot. Waiting to put in the mini garden that are for more exhibiting type roses. But I still do not know the personalities. I sure hate planting and then moving. Sure wish I could see these in gardens. But can't. I just am going to have to plow me another spot. I see no way out of it. I am not going to pot grow. Too hard. Seems reading the parents of some roses helps understand some personalities. Like most Franks off springs I can picture. But other breeders I not figured out. Lots of Robbies grow Tall and not hog. But that does not mean won't. I guess if you do not see these roses than pot growing or spacing is playing it safer huh. Planting sure was simplier when a mini was a mini and you knew a mini. But. These mini floras are so pretty.

Martin, I also wonder sometimes if too much is read into an author's intentions and sometimes a rose is just a rose. At the end of my copy of LOTF, Golding is quoted as saying that the entire book is symbolic in nature except for the very last scene in which the boys are rescued. Also, it says (which lends strength to cjoseph's mention of the Greek interpretation of Simon and the pig's head) that Golding listed his hobbies as thinking, classical Greek, sailing, and archeology and that his literary influences included Euripides. Very interesting. My impression is that the boys' plane was shot down during WWII, and that the parachutist was a victim of the same war because in the first page or so of Chapter Six, it says, ".....but there were other lights in the sky, that moved fast, winked, or went out, though not even a faint popping came down from the battle fought at ten miles' height. But a sign came down from the world of grownups, though at the time there was no child awake to read it. There was a sudden bright explosion and corkscrew trail across the sky....." and then the parachutist's body eventually landed on the island. I'm still puzzling over what happened to the child with the birthmark. I'm thinking that he is even mentioned again close to the end of the book and that no one knows what happened to him. Was he the victim of someone like Roger, perhaps? That doesn't seem to make sense since the boys were still restricted in some ways by the bonds of civilization. Did he wander off during the night and fall into the ocean? I guess I'll never know. It doesn't keep me from wondering, though!

You nailed it, though, Breton. All it takes is several million years to figure out how to be a Neochilenea up there. Maybe it's not even as nutrient-poor as it appears, considering the Flora that do exist there. The Atacama is fifth in my list of places to go to and one of only two deserts I want to see. Gobi is the other. I'm not sure if the Scablands count as desert?