Short Story Time Travel from the Early 2000s, Maybe Earlier?

Question

I don't remember much about the story in general, but here's the details I can recall.

It's a short story, intended for a 5th or 6th grade reading level, and I found it in the early 2000s in a collection of stories, the rest being lost to memory. In the story, somehow a kid finds out his neighbor has a time machine in his garage, or his neighbor might have told him about it. Either way, his neighbor proves his time machine by procuring a fully blooming rose in the middle of December.

I can't remember the end. It might have been published before 2000, maybe after.

Answer 1

LAFFF by Lensey Namioka (PDF file)

Neighbors:

Peter's family, like ours, had immigrated from China, but they had settled here first. When we moved into a house just two doors down from the Lu's, they gave us some good advice on how to get along in America.

Garage:

One evening, as I was coming home from a babysitting job, I cut across the Lus' backyard. Passing their garage, I saw through a little window that the light was on. My curiosity got the better of me, and I peeked in.

Rose:

He held a red rose in his hand. “What do you think of that?” I blinked. “So you produced a flower. Maybe you had it under the stool.” “Roses bloom in June, right?” he demanded. That was true. And this was December. “I sent myself forward in time to June when the flowers were blooming,” said Peter.