Prairie Peonies

06/28/2026

06/21/2026

06/21/2026

✨ New book about Linwood Gardens just published! ✨

📖 Sixty-one years after Bill Gratwick wrote his classic “My This Must Have Been a Beautiful Place…When It Was Kept Up,” his great-granddaughter Holly Watson has compiled a new book formally documenting the family and property’s story, putting recent decades on paper for the first time.

🌳 “No Small Plans: a History of Linwood Gardens” traces the Gratwick family from 1800s Buffalo to the establishment of Linwood Gardens as a country place and the property’s development up to the present day. Drawing from 125 years of photos and stories, the book helps put Linwood Gardens in its regional and national context.

🪺 Find “No Small Plans” at the following locations this summer:

🔹Linwood Gardens’ events and Open Garden Days (6/19, 7/18, 7/29, 8/29, 9/5, 10/3). Book is $25, all proceeds go directly to support the gardens.

🔹York Common Grounds just down the road. An open-house book-signing and opportunity to chat with Holly will be Sat. June 20, 10am-noon!

🔹 Sundance Books in Geneseo.

🔹Check back in the next few weeks for additional local bookstores and locations to pick up a copy.

🔹 At this time, shipping is not available.

💙 Thank you to all who have contributed to this project!

05/28/2026

The 2026 CPS Seed Sale is now open! Check it out and grow yourself a one-of-a-kind plant! This is a major fundraiser for CPS activities, initiatives, and events, so know that a purchase would go a long way to supporting the efforts of the CPS.

Members would have received access to the seed sale on May 22. Members have first access with the seed list becoming available to the non-members at a later date.

The CPS would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to our seed coordinator, John Moons and his assistant Joan Campbell who's dedicated work makes this all possible, and all of the seed donors listed below:

Angie Andruss
Beverley Sheridan
Bill Wegman
Diana Hillman
Donna Slater
Gregory Rockwell
Holly Pender-Love
Joan Campbell and John Moons
Joe Harvey
En Fleurs
Patricia Wyka
Sharon Lanigan
Valerie Ames
Whistling Gardens See less

04/03/2026

Howdy, my peony people! Tomorrow (April 4) I will be representing the Canadian Peony Society at the Stony Plain Seedy Saturday and will be handing out FREE packets of seed that were hand collected by myself from some stunning parent plants that are known to produce some beautiful offspring. We'll also be well equipped to answer any questions you may have.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Red Brick Common building. I hope to see you there! The atmosphere was electric last year. :) Photo is from the Edmonton Seedy Sunday event that we attended this past March.

01/13/2026

Last chance for membership renewal!

A friendly reminder: The last day to renew memberships that expired in 2025 is this Thursday, January 15, 2026. This is a great time to do so to retain access to the Zoom Winter Webinar Series which will commence on Sunday, January 18 (and to retain access to all the other wonderful exclusive membership benefits). We look forward to and sincerely thank you for your renewal!

Photo: 'Etched Salmon' (Cousins / Klehm, R.G., 1981) by Nick Maycher Prairie Peonies

01/05/2026

Hello my plant people! I have the great pleasure of participating in a Zoom presentation on January 10 (this coming Saturday) on the topic of best performing peony cultivars in our gardens with some incredibly knowledgeable peony experts. As Canadian Peony Society President, I will be representing Canada and cold climate growers.

This presentation is being hosted by the American Peony Society via Zoom. Normally a paid membership is required to attend a presentation, but in January all meetings are open to the public (but registration is required to attend). You can register here if interested.

https://americanpeonysociety.org/.../winter-2026-zoom.../

I thought that y'all might find this interesting and that it might give you a wish list to work on this winter. Photos of me and of my 2025 Edmonton garden for attention. Thanks for reading, folks!