No Friends of Mine

Ah yes, a Rose by any other name is still a Rose!

Well, not true. I hear it has to be a Jackson Perkins Rose or none at all.

So the wife is a big fan of Roses, any kind of Roses, but after all the landscaping we had put in we only have carpet roses.

Well, for over a year now all I have heard is how much she would like Rose bushes and why don't we have any.

Every time I respond with well, supposedly they don't grow well here.

Now how stupid am I to leave myself wide open for that?

There are at least 4 houses with a view from our house that have Roses growing in their yard.

My wife is quick to point out those houses as well as every other house we drive by that has Roses.

Funny how they all are thriving and have big blossoms on them she says.

Then, when we are at the park at night with our friends and the subject of Roses comes up, everyone chimes in about how great their Roses look.

Those park friends, and I use the term 'friends' loosely, either bring up my messy garage or the lack of Roses we have in our yard.

Both subjects are like a lightning rod to my wife, and trust me I feel the thunder.

Well, some of those so called friends took pity on my poor wife, or alas they wanted to make my wallet a little lighter, I'm not sure.

So here's what Ben and Ron did - they gave Vic a Rose tree.

That's right. Not a bush, oh no, they went all out and gave her a Rose Tree.

Oh no, not just any Rose Tree but a Jackson Perkins Rose Tree.

Those trees even come with a dog tag with their name on it. See the green tag in the picture.



Well, she was like a kid in a toy store running all about the yard to find the prime location for her prized possession - her first Rose, not bush, but her first Rose Tree.



At last she settled on the front entrance to our house so that all guests and anyone who happens to drive by will see that Vic has Roses too.



And not just any Roses but a Jackson Perkins Rose Tree and she turned the tag for the world to see.

So now Vic is happy because she finally gets her Roses (no I am not a romantic kind of guy so I never sent her Roses) and now I've been one-upped.

But no, it doesn't stop there.

Vic's friends (not mine), Ben and Ron, couldn't let well enough alone with the Rose Tree, oh no. With it they included a Jackson Perkins catalog full of pictures of all their plants not just Roses.

Some people would say well the catalog is like Playboy Magazine - forget the pictures just read the articles. Well, hello, in this catalog there are only pictures and you could hear Vic oohing and ahhing at those pictures of all the flowers.

So Ben and Ron made their point, but do you think they stopped there?

Ha, no way, the next night when they showed up at the park in their hands were more catalogs.

Then as icing finishes a cake, to make sure no stone was unturned, and to make double sure Vic had actually seen the previous catalogs, they delivered the ultimate secret weapon - they emailed the Jackson Perkins catalog to make sure that Vic did not miss a thing.

It's nice that Vic has friends that are so concerned with seeing her happy.

Now the question is, how big will the order from Jackson Perkins be? As Vic puts it "we have plenty of yard and did you see a lot of the plants are on sale?"

My friends, the two most dangerous words around my wife are "ON SALE."

I think Jackson Perkins is like Amway, I bet Ben and Ron get some kinda commission on sales and this was just a ruse acting like they are Vic's friends. Yeah, I bet that's it!!!

Well, that's it for today as I have to run to apply for a second job to compensate for the sale items at Jackson Perkins.

God help me if that tree doesn't bloom big!!!