Looking for: horror story about a rose garden

Cafe Society
1

This story was published in Cosmopolitan magazine in the bygone times when not every story in Cosmo was about hot sex.

It concerned a house flipper (yeah, and this was in the '70s or '80s) who was going to take out a rose garden and put in a badminton court.

The roses objected.

Anyway, I would really like to find this story, and find out if this author wrote anything else.

Both Google and duckduckgo have failed me, turning up many episodes of American Horror Story featuring actors named Rose and lots of ads for Cosmo magazine.

Any hints to improve my search-fu?

2

Someone who’s more familiar with his work will likely come along and say I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I think it might be Harlan Ellison?

3

Well…at the time I read it I was quite familiar with Harlan Ellison and his work, and I think I would have noticed his name on the story. But possibly not.

4

It sounds like “Into the Rose Garden,” by Gardner McKay (this is an Amazon link to an anthology of McKay’s stories that includes the one in question; read the descriptor). It doesn’t say when the story was written, but I’m pretty sure this is the one.

5

Looks like it was also published in 1982 in The Arbor House Celebrity Book of Horror Stories Publication: The Arbor House Celebrity Book of Horror Stories

6

That definitely sounds like it, thanks!

Could you tell me how you searched for it?

7

I did a Google search with “rose garden,” “badminton,” and “story”; it was near the bottom of the second page of results (your OP is at the top of the first page!)