Rock-Park

• Location: 1010 Vienna, Schreyvogelgasse
  Public transport information
• Size: approximately 200 square metres
• Contact: +43 1 4000-8042

Description of the Park

This very small park alongside the Schreyvogelgasse was named after the botanist, anthropologist, explorer, linguist, photographer, and author Joseph Francis Rock. Jospeh Francis (Franz) Rock was born in Vienna in 1884 and lived in the immediate vicinity of the park. (Universitätsring 12)

He emigrated to the USA in 1905. Later he took the American Citizenship and was the last of the great plant hunters and explorers working for the Arnold Arboretum.

Paeonia rockii

Working and living in Southwest China (1920 to 1948), Joseph Francis Rock dealt, among other things, intensively with Peony flowers. Paeonia rockii is a species of Peony that was named after him. He collected seeds in the Chone Monastery in China and cultivated them in England and in the USA. The Paeonia rockii, as wild species, was not discovered until 1990 and has been acknowledged as its own species since 1992. It grows up to two meters tall and lives up to 100 years.

Rock died in Honolulu USA in 1962. The park is a late tribute in course of the 40 Year Celebrations of the Austrian-Chinese Relations in 2011.