A child's book probably from the 50s which was a compilation of short stories. I remember a story about a gardener thinking he had discovered a new type of 'spotted' rose only to find that his neighbour had been painting... and another story about a spoilt girl who kept wishing for her bedroom to be a different colour, eventually after her wish had been granted many times (by fairies?) she was still not happy and wished it to be changed to black and ended up looking up at the night sky. All the stories were quite strange and/ or magical. Can only remember black and white illustrations at the beginning of each new story.

My report -- I called my library yesterday and gave the children's department your question. They were excited about the details you supplied, and will let me know if they find something or not. If the book is out of print, it will be more difficult to track this down, but they had high hopes of finding a title for you (me).

My final report --

I called two libraries near me. They are both unrivaled at figuring out authors and titles. Both said these books sound wonderful, but none of their reader's advisory databases, print resources, or any staff person could remember such stories.

I'm a writer, so I guess I'm going to begin writing children's fiction now. The storylines are too cool to forget about!