Botanical prints, to bring the border indoors

Botanical prints of twelve garden plants

Each botanical print takes one plant and sets it on a plain cream ground, the way an old herbal or a seed catalogue would: the flower, the bud and often the bulb or the root as well. They are painted in a botanical style, not measured specimen drawings, so they suit a wall more than a field guide.

• Botanical Rose. A single old garden rose stem with an open pink bloom and a bud on a cream ground.
• Botanical Tulip. A striped red and cream tulip with bulb and roots on a cream ground.
• Botanical Foxglove. A pink foxglove spire with leaves on a cream ground.
• Botanical Fern. An unfurling fern frond crossed with a mature frond on a cream ground.
• Botanical Iris. A purple bearded iris with rhizome and leaves on a cream ground.
• Botanical Poppy. A red poppy flower, seed head and bud on curving stems on a cream ground.
• Botanical Sweet Pea. A stem of pink and purple sweet peas with tendrils and a pod on a cream ground.
• Botanical Dahlia. An orange cactus dahlia bloom with a bud and leaves on a cream ground.
• Botanical Hellebore. A stem of white-green nodding hellebores with a divided leaf on a cream ground.
• Botanical Apple Blossom. A twig of pink-white apple blossom with leaves and a small apple on a cream ground.
• Botanical Lavender. Three stems of lavender with grey-green leaves on a cream ground.
• Botanical Snowdrop. A clump of snowdrops with bulbs and roots on a cream ground.

Framed botanical prints

Every one of the twelve comes framed, in two ways. A framed poster is the print on 250gsm archival paper in a wooden frame 22 mm deep, with a plexiglass front, in A3 or A2 and in black or natural wood. It arrives in its frame, ready to hang. A framed canvas puts the print on canvas over a 2 cm stretcher inside a wooden float frame 32 mm deep. It comes in three sizes, 30x40, 40x50 and 50x70 cm, with a black, dark wood or natural wood frame. The prices below are the live ones for each frame.

Not sure about a frame? An unframed poster leaves the choice to you, and the canvas, metal and wood prints hang without glass.

Vintage botanical prints, newly drawn

If you are after vintage botanical prints, it helps to know what is on offer. An antique plate is a page taken from an old book. A reproduction is a modern print of one of those pages. Ours are neither. Each is a new artwork that borrows the look of an old herbal: a pale cream ground, the plant drawn in fine line with soft colour, and often the parts below ground as well. Botanical Tulip and Botanical Snowdrop show the bulb and roots, and Botanical Iris shows the rhizome. So you get the vintage look, printed new, at the size and frame you choose.

Botanical wall art for each room

The matching cream grounds make these the easiest prints to hang in a group. Three in a row along a hallway, or a grid of four or six above a sofa, works because the backgrounds match. For a single larger piece, the rose, the iris and the dahlia hold the most colour at A2. In a bathroom or kitchen, choose a metal or framed print, which copes better with steam than an unframed poster.

Botanical illustration, and what these are instead

The older meaning of a botanical print is botanical illustration: pictures made to show a plant's form, colour and detail accurately enough to describe the species. Georg Dionysius Ehret, Pierre-Joseph Redouté and Ferdinand Bauer are among its best-known names, and Redouté's Les Roses came out between 1817 and 1824. Our botanical prints borrow that look, but they are artworks for a wall, not a scientific record, so please don't use one to identify a plant.

Choosing botanical art prints: the piece, then the finish

Open an artwork to see its available print sizes, surfaces and current prices. Think about the room as well as the subject: the rose, the iris and the dahlia carry more colour than the fern, the hellebore and the snowdrop, which are quieter. Read our guide to hanging botanical art before choosing a pair.

For the flowers you grew yourself

A favourite bloom from your own garden can be more personal still. Print the original photograph for faithful detail, or try an art style. An art style may change flower structures, so it isn't a substitute for a botanical record.