Since moving to Almaden more than 20 years ago, Deceuster has slowly been converting his front and back yards into a massive rose garden.

In his garden, Deceuster has more than 120 different types of roses and approximately 140 rose bushes. He also spends time combing the neighborhood looking for plants that need to be rescued from the trash or demolition sites. While he has thousands of plants in his garden, roses remain his passion. He has even incorporated them into his business and social life.

Deceuster disappears in the blooms and leaves every weekend between January and November as he tends to them with diligence and care.

"From sunup to sundown, I'm in the garden," Deceuster says. "Usually as the sun goes up, people are out walking and they tell me how much they love walking by my garden."

Sometimes people ask him for seeds or other starts to a plant, and he is happy to share. Deceuster essentially has two gardens--one in the back yard and one in the front.

His back yard is his cutting garden. There he grows flowers that he may want to give away or use to create arrangements.

For instance, Deceuster has been making flower arrangements each Sunday for his church for the past 10 years. Steve Hayden, the bishop at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says Deceuster's flower arrangements bring color and beauty to the church.

"Everybody knows that they are personally constructed by Joel early every Sunday morning," Hayden says. "He's a bright spot in our ward, kind of like his flowers are a bright spot in his neighborhood."

He has also created and given away flower arrangements to his friends for special occasions. His neighbor, Joyce Wong, said Deceuster gave her floral arrangements for a bridal shower that she held for a relative.

"No one could believe they came out of someone's backyard. Everyone thought I bought them from a florist," Wong says.

Deceuster says he arranges flowers for weddings, too, but only for close friends.

"The bride gets to choose the colors and that's it. I decide the rest," he says.

Deceuster's back yard has two flower boxes that he refers to as "holding tanks." He uses the boxes to hold plants temporarily while he finds them a permanent home either in his garden or at a friend's home.

Typically, the holding tanks house plants that were shipped to him from his mother in Ohio or plants that he saved from neighbors' garbage piles or construction sites.

Deceuster said he is concerned about the plants that may be destroyed in the development of the Pierce Ranch land near McAbee Road and the entrance to Almaden Quicksilver Park. He said he has been trying to contact the developers to ask if he can save some of the plants on the site, but hasn't had much luck. He even left a note in the mailbox of the original ranch home on the property and hasn't received a response.

Deceuster also looks for commercial landscapers who may be taking out old plants to re-landscape a shopping center or a school so he can ask them for the old plants, he says.

"I think it's a crime to just throw them out when other people can use them," Deceuster said. "They usually think I'm crazy."

Once the plants are growing well in the temporary boxes, he gives them away to friends and neighbors.

Deceuster's front yard is his pride and joy. This garden is purely for his and his neighbors' viewing pleasure.

Roses border the far side of the driveway, each bush with different colored blooms ranging from tan to light pink to deep red.

Across the driveway is Deceuster's lawn, which seems to be an island in an ocean of flowers. A small concrete path winds through hundreds of blooms, all with different colors and scents. Most bushes by this time of year are more than four feet tall; some even stand taller than six feet.

On either side of the sidewalk in front of his home, roses grow as if greeting pedestrians. On his street, residents have a few grassy areas near the sidewalk called parking strips that they are supposed to take care of. The city of San Jose requests a tree be planted in one of those areas, but Deceuster has filled his with roses and a unique plant called love-lies-bleeding, which has tendrils covered in tiny, magenta flowers.

While walkers admire his garden year-round, many gather on the Saturday before Mother's Day for the Monte Video neighborhood garden walk. The walk began three years ago, and Deceuster says it grows in numbers each year as residents meander through the neighborhood, admiring the gardens. Deceuster says he spends most of the day giving tours of his front yard and answering questions for the passers-by.

About one-third of the plants in his yard have come from his mother. When he was young, he helped his mother and grandmother in their gardens. Even though he now lives more than 2,000 miles away, they still "compare notes" via telephone each Saturday, he says.

By receiving plants from his mom, he has a few plants that are unique to California.

He also picks up seeds and bulbs while traveling to see if he can grow them in California. For example, he picked up the seeds for the love-lies-bleeding plant in Charlottesville, Va.

Other plants he has brought home to Almaden include a nicotina plant from British Columbia. Nicotina plants typically found around California grow to about knee-height, but the plant Deceuster brought back from Canada is about four feet tall.

Deceuster gets many of his rose plants from the Almaden Valley Nursery, located on the Almaden Expressway near Almaden Lake Park. Deceuster has been purchasing roses and other plants there for more than 20 years. He said he gets a lot of advice from Eric Wilder, president of the business.

"As long as I've been here, Joel's been here," Wilder says. "He's very detail-oriented. That's why he's successful in business. He's a smart guy."

Like many businessmen in the Silicon Valley, Deceuster has been a part of his share of startups, corporations and the purchasing and selling of businesses. Deceuster's current business is helping other businesses.

He is a certified business coach through the "Your Best Year Yet" program, which gives guidance to struggling small businesses.

As he mentors his clients, he uses the process of growing a rose bush as a metaphor for growing their business. He provides his clients with "Secrets from the Rose Garden," which explain how skills needed to maintain a rose bush can also be use to maintain a business. For example, identifying and maintaining the goals of the business is like preparing the soil for a garden.

Deceuster says that talking to his clients about his interest makes the business more personal.

While he has enjoyed incorporating his passion for roses into his current business venture, he is hesitant to merge them completely.

"I don't want to go into the floral business because it may minimize my passion for it," Deceuster says.

Growing and caring for rose bushes has helped Deceuster in more areas in his life than just business. He believes it has taught him how to be a nurturing father as well.

Deceuster has six children--five sons and one daughter.

Deceuster and his wife, Madeline, have been married for 31 years. After being around roses most of that time, she does not respond to the beautiful flower the way other women might.

"I can't score major points, let's put it that way," Deceuster says.

But Deceuster doesn't slave away in his garden for others, he does it for his own pleasure and mental health.

"To me, it's therapy," Deceuster says. "I'd be a basket case without my garden."