Jackson Jones can't get away from roses. First his mother got him a plot at Rooter's, a community garden, where Jackson planted a rosebush of thorns and no blooms. Now Mr. K., a fellow gardener, enlists Jackson's help to rustle up some hardier, prettier, sweeter-smelling old-time roses. The kind that grow in cemeteries! But no sooner do Jackson and his good friend, Reuben, take the rose cutting home than Reuben's gloom-and-doom talk of curses seems real.Broken bones. Poison ivy. Stinging bees. Jackson doesn't want to believe that anyone who comes in contact with the cemetery roses or cut twig suffers any of these consequences. But could it be that by taking the cutting, Jackson places his friends, Rooter's, and even himself--gulp!--under the curse of the outlaw rose?