TREE PEONY COLLECTION

Linwood Gardens is home to a distinguished collection of Japanese and American tree peonies established by William H. “Bill” Gratwick III and Nassos Daphnis between the 1930s and 1980s.

Bill Gratwick received degrees in architecture and landscape architecture in college and came back to live at Linwood Gardens, his childhood summer home, in 1933. He established a rare plants nursery on the property, raising trees from seed and developing hardier varieties of boxwood that could endure the winters of Western New York.  

Along the way, he met Dr. A. P. Saunders, a chemistry professor at Hamilton College, who introduced him to tree peonies. Inspired by the beauty of this renowned flower from Asia, Gratwick imported 114 named tree peony cultivars from Japan, as well as 100 Japanese tree peony seeds. He trialed the seeds and selected nine to register with the American Peony Society.  Meanwhile, Saunders continued to hybridize new varieties, using species to expand the color range and strengthen other attributes.  

Nassos Daphnis, an artist from New York City, was drawn to Linwood in the late 1930s to paint the tree peony flowers. He began hybridizing tree peonies in 1945 and is now known for his series of hybrids. Bill Gratwick continued to raise and propagate the original Japanese imports, the Daphnis and Saunders hybrids, and his own introductions from the original acquisition of 100 seeds.

Today, this historic collection is cared for and preserved by Bill’s daughter Lee Gratwick, his granddaughter Clara Mulligan, and his great-granddaughter Holly Watson.

Our collection guidelines focus primarily on the 114 original Japanese varieties, Japanese seedlings, select Saunders hybrids, Gratwick Introductions, and all 46 of the registered Daphnis hybrids. Varieties we are still seeking include Daphnis’s ‘Aphrodite’, ‘Maia’, and ‘Medea’, and Gratwick’s ‘Chore’. Thank you to the generous recent donations of lost cultivars, including ‘Dark of the Moon’ and ‘Lilith’ (Gratwick)!

As of the 2020s, Linwood Gardens maintains over 600 individual plants, representing about 150 cultivars, plus seedlings.

Below are some of the flowers you will see in the Linwood Gardens collection.