They call him the Rose Man.
John Leon has pruned his last rose at Mission College in SantaClara -- a pink Queen Elizabeth.
After 33 years at the community college, the 63-year-old Rose Man retires Wednesday.
Leon never missed a day of work, not even during treatments for the illness that finally persuaded him to hang up his pruning shears and retire to northeastern California with his wife -- whose name just happens to be Rosie.
The San Jose Mercury News reported Tuesday that Leon says people would always ask him what was wrong with their roses at home. Most of the time, he told them, it was too much water.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
