If you love vintage florals, you’re going to adore this collection of Victorian botanical prints. Packed with over 120 beautifully detailed flower illustrations from Edwards’ Botanical Register, these antique blooms are perfect for wall art, decoupage, and all sorts of creative projects. They are timeless, elegant, and completely free to download
What Is Edwards’ Botanical Register?
Edwards’ Botanical Register was a hugely important 19th-century botanical publication, running from 1815 to 1847. Sydenham Edwards founded it after he left Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. After Sydenham Edwards passed away, the publication was taken over by John Lindley, who kept the science on track.
The aim was to document and showcase plants, especially newly discovered and exotic species arriving in Britain. Think striking orchids and unusual tropical blooms that caused quite a stir in Victorian greenhouses.
A Golden Age of Flower Illustration
Before photography, artists had to capture every detail by hand, and it shows. The illustrations are bold, colourful, and often surprisingly expressive.
They’re scientific, yes, but also beautifully decorative. The sort of prints that look just as good on your wall as they did in a botanist’s study. This wasn’t just about aesthetics. The Botanical Register helped document new plant species and fuelled a fascination with exotic plants in Britain (especially orchids; Victorians did love a dramatic bloom).
It’s that lovely mix of art and science that makes it feel just as relevant today.
The collection includes everything from classic roses to wonderfully unusual tropical flowers. Perfect for a bit of creative inspiration. These designs are just begging to be turned into prints, decoupage, or embroidery projects.
How To Download The Prints
All of the botanical illustrations in this collection are in the public domain, which means you can download and use them for free. Since there are so many flower prints, I have listed them alphabetically.
To grab your favourites:
- Click on the image you like to open the full-size version
- Right-click (or tap and hold on mobile) and save it to your device
- For the best results, print at high resolution or use watercolour paper for crafts
They’re ideal for wall art, card making, decoupage, and all sorts of paper projects. (I’ve definitely got a few earmarked for future crafts already!)
Prints 1-15 Aechmea to Bell Flowers
Aechmea flowers are part of the bromeliad family and are known for their striking, spiky blooms and long-lasting colour, often adding a bold tropical vibe to any setting.
Here you’ll find many more of John Lindley’s Victorian tropical flower prints.
2. Air Plant
Tillandsia stricta
South African flower in the Amaryllis family.
Amaryllis flowers are known for their large, trumpet-shaped blooms that grow on tall, leafless stems, putting on a bold and slightly theatrical display, especially in winter when most plants are taking a break.
7. Aster (New England Star Wort)
Asters are late-season bloomers that brighten up gardens just as summer fades, with their daisy-like flowers often attracting bees and butterflies well into autumn.
8. Smooth Aster
12. Baby Blue Eyes
Prints 16-23 Cactus Flowers
Cactus flowers are a bit of a surprise act, bursting into bold, often short-lived blooms from otherwise spiky, unassuming plants, sometimes opening for just a single day or night.
You’ll find a whole collection of cactus prints here.
Known as Echinocactus eyriesii.
17. Glaucous Sweet-scented Porcupine Cactus
Very similar cactus flower to the one above.
Harrisia gracilis cactus
Prints 24 – 35 Camellia to Clycamen
Camellias have a bit of a dramatic flair: they bloom in late winter or early spring when not much else is around, and their perfectly formed petals often fall whole rather than dropping one by one, like a flower with a flair for a grand exit.
25. Pink Camellia
26. Crimson Camellia
28. Shrubby Chinese Pink Carnation
29. Quilled Indian Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums are a bit of a cultural chameleon, symbols of joy and longevity in some countries but linked to remembrance in others. which makes them all the more interesting to spot in art, like in my collection of vintage chrysanthemum botanical illustrations.
30. White Indian Chrysanthemum
31. Pretty Clarkia
32. Clematis Florida
Crocuses are one of the first signs of spring, often pushing through frost or even snow to show off their cheerful, cup-shaped blooms.
Prints 36 – 52 Dagger to Gloxinia
36. Spanish Dagger
Yucca Gloriosa
37. Daffodil
Daffodils have a bit of myth behind them; their name comes from the story of Narcissus, the famously self-absorbed youth, which explains their slightly nodding heads. Take a look at how artists captured them in my collection of vintage daffodil flower drawings
38. Sea Daffodils
39. Narcissus Sabini
There is a simple narcissus, daffodil drawing tutorial here.
40. African Daisy
41. African Daisy 2
42. Painted Daisy
43. Shewy Delphinium
44. Crimson Dahlia
48. Yellow Foxglove
50. Glory Bush
Gloxinia flowers are known for their velvety, trumpet-shaped blooms in rich jewel tones, giving them a slightly old-fashioned, greenhouse charm.
52. Gloxinia flowers
Prints 53- 71 Hibiscus to Lupins
Hibiscus plants, native to warm tropical and subtropical regions around the world, are known for their large, showy blooms and bold colours. You can see just how striking they are in my collection of vintage botanical hibiscus drawings.
There is also a simple tutorial on drawing hibiscus here.
54. Lilac Hibiscus
58. Iris Lactea
For more lily prints, check out this beautiful collection of Japanese Iris Paintings.
59. Nepal Iris
Justicia carnea
Lilies have a surprisingly muddled identity; lots of plants use the name without actually being true Lilium, which makes them more interesting than they first appear, as you’ll see in my collection of vintage lily drawings and illustrations
64. Pale Flowered Belladonna Lily
65. River Lily
68. Garland Lily
70. Sacred Lotus
71. Lupins
Prints 72 – 86 Magnolia to Orchids
Magnolias are real botanical old-timers, dating back over 100 million years to a time before bees existed, when beetles pollinated them. Which makes their elegant blooms feel even more timeless, as you can see in my collection of vintage magnolia prints.
74. Fig Marigold
75. Orange Coloured Cape Marigold
77. Starry Osbeckia
With their exotic shapes and incredible diversity, orchids are one of the largest and most varied plant families in the world. It’s no wonder they’ve captivated botanical artists for centuries, as you can see in my collection of vintage orchid prints.
79. Bulbophyllum Chinense Orchid
80. Mayflower Orchid
81. Orchid Rhyncholaelia glauca
82. Large-flowered Lady’s Slipper Orchid
Pleione praecox is native to the Himalayan regions of countries like India, Nepal, and Myanmar, where it grows in cool, mountainous habitats and blooms in autumn.
85. Red Disa Orchid
86. Tulip Orchid
Prints 87 – 104 Passion Flowers to Protea
With their wonderfully intricate, almost otherworldly structure, passion flowers have long fascinated botanists and artists alike. Take a look at my collection of beautiful vintage passion flower drawings
92. Sea Lavender-leaved Penstemon
93. Chinese Peony
Peonies have been prized in China for over a thousand years. Often called the “king of flowers” and a symbol of wealth and honour, the peony appears in art, poetry, and even imperial gardens, making it easy to see why it’s inspired so many artists, including those featured in my collection of vintage peony paintings.
94. Chinese Peony 2
95. Double White Chinese Peony
96. Candian Peony
97. Double Sweet-Scented Chinese Peony
98. Peony
99. White Mexican Prickly Poppy
Poppies are steeped in symbolism, from sleep and peace in ancient times to remembrance after World War I, when they famously bloomed across battle-scarred fields, which adds an extra layer of meaning to the striking blooms featured in my collection of vintage poppy pictures.
10. Giant Poppy
102. Heartleaf Evening Primrose
Unlike many flowers, the Evening Primrose opens at sunset and remains open through the night to attract pollinators like hawk moths.
104. Waved Leaved Protea
Prints 105 to 116 Rhododendron to Sunflowers
105. Rhododendron
Rhododendrons are known for their big, showy clusters of blooms that can turn entire shrubs into clouds of colour each spring.
106. Cartons Rhododendron
107. Pink Rhododendron
108. Burgandy Rose
Roses have been symbols of love, passion, and even secrecy for centuries, linked to myths of goddesses like Aphrodite and used to convey hidden meanings through their colours, which is why they’ve inspired so much art, as you can see in my collection of vintage botanical rose prints.
109. Moss Rose
110. The Ruga Rose
111. Seven Sisters Rose
112. Tuscany Rose
113. Spiderwort
If you’re looking for more sunflower illustrations, then check out the botanical sunflowers on the site. There is even a tutorial on how to draw sunflowers.
115. Mexican Sunflower
116. Trumpet Stalked Sunflower
Prints 117 – 125 Trumpets to Zinnia
117. Red Angel’s Trumpet
118. Red Tulip
Tulips might be forever linked with the Netherlands. Still, they originated in Central Asia before making their way through the Ottoman Empire and into Europe, where they sparked both artistic fascination and even a financial craze known as “tulip mania” in the 17th century. You can see why they inspired so many artists in my collection of vintage tulip paintings.
119. Gesners Tulip
120. Horned Tulip
122. Purple Bell Vine
123. Violet Trumpet Vine
124. Large Flowered Zephyranthes
Zephyranthes, often called “rain lilies,” have a neat trick: they tend to burst into bloom almost overnight after heavy rain, as if they’ve been waiting for their cue all along.
125. Scarlet Zinnia
Final Thoughts
If you’ve enjoyed browsing these blooms, there’s a whole garden of vintage botanical goodness waiting elsewhere on Picture Box Blue. From the bold, beautifully labelled charts of Adolphe Millot (some of the most popular downloads on the site) to the elegant German plates in Carl Hoffmann botanical prints, there’s something for every taste, whether you like your flowers neat and scientific or a little more decorative.
For something a bit more delicate and storybook-like, the wildflower illustrations are well worth a look too. The charming collection of Vintage American wildflowers and the beautifully detailed works by Harriet Isabel Adams, including more wildflower illustrations by Harriet Adams. These collections sit somewhere between art and science, with that lovely Arts & Crafts feel running through them.
So if you’re still in the mood for more petals, patterns, and perfectly illustrated plants, wander, you’ll find plenty more floral inspiration to download, print, and maybe even turn into your next crafty project.
If you fancy, you can Buy Me A Coffee Here.
Patricia
Thursday 21st of May 2026
Hello Thank you so much for providing these images. I appreciate your generosity. Are these images 300 dpi?
claire
Thursday 21st of May 2026
Thank you, yes the images should be 300dpi.
figurativehub
Wednesday 6th of May 2026
Appreciate the effort you put into this.
claire
Wednesday 6th of May 2026
Thank you so much