Gorgeous Free Vintage Magnolia Prints To Download

Discover a beautiful collection of vintage magnolia prints and botanical illustrations, all free to download. These elegant antique flower artworks feature large creamy blooms and lush foliage, perfect for wall art, crafts, decoupage, and timeless floral decor.

In the street next to me, two gorgeous magnolia trees are in bloom at the moment. They look and smell so beautiful that it has inspired me to curate this collection of vintage magnolia prints.

Like many other flowers, such as daffodils and tulips, magnolias are ones I associate heavily with spring. Where I live in the UK, they are often in full bloom in April.

Magnolias are beautiful flowering trees or shrubs. There are about 210 species of magnolia. The plant is named after the French botanist Pierre Magnol.

The Magnolia Tree Flower

These vintage magnolia prints will show how Magnolia trees differ in size, shape, colour, and habitat. The colour of the magnolia flowers can be pink, white, red, purple, or yellow. The size of the flowers ranges from 7.5cm (3″) up to 30cm (12″) in diameter. They consist of up to 18 leathery sepals and petals, fused into tepals.

The magnolia flower is very fragrant and often has a citrus-like smell. Beetles mainly pollinate Magnolia flowers. They do not produce nectar, but they do produce large quantities of pollen. The pollen is high in protein, and the beetles use it for food.

Magnolia trees are ancient; they have been found as fossils dating to 20 million years ago. The life expectancy of magnolia trees varies by variety, but many live for 100 years or longer.

Use of The Magnolia Flower

Many Magnolia species are edible. In parts of England, the petals of M. Grandiflora are pickled and used as a spicy condiment.

Some Asian cuisines pickle magnolia buds to flavour rice and scent tea. In Japan, people broil and eat the young leaves and flower buds of Magnolia hypoleuca as a vegetable. Japanese cooks also make a magnolia-flavoured miso called hoba miso.

The Japanese also use the leaves of Magnolia obovata to wrap food and cook in dishes. The bark and flower buds of Magnolia officinalis have long been used in traditional Chinese medicine. They have shown anti-anxiety and anti-angiogenic properties.

Magnolia Flower symbolism

The magnolia flower is associated with symbols of nobility, perseverance, and love of nature.

Soft and subtle in colour yet strong in appearance, the flower represents the beauty of femininity and gentleness.

In the American South, florists often include white magnolias in bridal bouquets because people associate the flowers with purity and nobility.

Magnolia sieboldii is the national flower of North Korea. The white or Yulan magnolia is the official flower of the Chinese city of Shanghai. Mississippi has the nickname “Magnolia State,” and the Magnolia Grandiflora is its state flower, as it is Louisiana’s.

How To Download The Vintage Magnolia Prints

All these old magnolia drawings and paintings are in the public domain and free to download and print. To download the magnolia print, click on the title above the print.

A higher-resolution print should then open in a new tab in your browser. Either print it straight away or save the print to your hard drive and send it to an online printer for a good quality print.

Magnolia Botanicals 1-6

1. White Magnolia 1767

I’m not sure which variety of Magnolia this white flower is from. It is a beautiful vintage magnolia print from the book “Hortus Europae americanus” (or “A collection of 85 curious trees and shrubs”) by Mark Catsby, 1767.

2. Four Vintage Magnolia Drawings 1767

Again, I’m sorry, but I don’t know the names of these four magnolia flowers in this print. However, they are from the same book as the magnolia print above.

3. Magnolia × thompsoniana

Magnolia × thompsoniana was the first magnolia hybrid. It arose as a spontaneous seedling from a batch of seed taken and grown from an old tree of Magnolia virginiana in 1808 in the nursery of Archibald Thompson in Mile End in London. Nearby grew a specimen of the Magnolia tripetala. One seedling was more vigorous, with larger leaves and flowers.

The magnolia painting is from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 47, published in 1820.

4. Magnolia Campbellii

Magnolia campbellii grows in the sheltered valleys of the Himalayas, and gardeners also cultivate it as an ornamental tree for its stunning pink flowers.

This vintage magnolia painting is by the British botanist and explorer Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. He was Charles Darwin’s closest friend and the director of Kew Gardens. Hooker named this species of Magnolia after Archibald Campbell, Superintendent of Darjeeling (India).

5. Cathcart’s Magnolia

Another beautiful vintage magnolia print by the botanist Joseph Hooker. This Himalayan plant was named after James F. Cathcart, a member of the Indian Civil Service and a 19th-century amateur botanist.

This is a large magnolia tree that can grow up to 50 m tall.

6. Magnolia Denudata & Magnolia Stellata

There are two different magnolia flowers in this botanical illustration from the book “Beautiful flowering trees and shrubs for British and Irish gardens” by John Weathers, 1903.

Magnolia denudata, commonly known as the lily tree, is native to China. The tree could be found in the Emperor’s garden during the Tang Dynasty. It is the official city flower of Shanghai.

The other flower is Magnolia stellata, sometimes called the star magnolia, which is native to Japan. It bears large, showy white or pink flowers in early spring before its leaves open.

Magnolia Botanicals 7-12

7. Magnolia Dodecapetala

A magnolia botanical illustration from the book “Flore médicale des Antilles” 1822.

8. Magnolia Kobus

This species of magnolia is native to Japan and Korea. This vintage magnolia print is from the magazine “Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, London, vol. 138” (1912).

9. Magnolia Liliifera

Commonly known as the egg magnolia. This magnolia botanical illustration is from “Edwards’ botanical register, or, Ornamental flower-garden and shrubbery.”

10. Magnolia Liliiflora

This old magnolia painting is from the book “Plantæ Utiliores: Or Illustrations Of Useful Plants” 1845, by Burnett & Burnett.

11. Magnolia Tripetala

People commonly call Magnolia tripetala the umbrella magnolia. The tree grows natively in the Eastern United States, where its large leaves cluster at the tips of the branches to form an umbrella-shaped canopy.

Although I don’t know who painted this gorgeous magnolia flower, the Metropolitan Museum of Art dates the artwork to 1891.

Magnolia Botanicals 12-17

12. Magnolia Virginiana

Magnolia virginiana, more commonly known as the sweetbay magnolia, is another native of the Eastern United States.

This vintage magnolia botanical illustration is from the 1813 book “Description des plantes rares cultivees a Malmaison et a Navarre.”

13. Magnolia × soulangeana

Magnolia × soulangeana, more commonly known as the saucer magnolia, is a hybrid plant. The magnolia variety is one of the most commonly used magnolias in horticulture, being widely planted in the British Isles and in the United States.

This beautiful magnolia painting is by the French botanist Charles Antoine Lemaire and from the 1854 publication, “L’Illustration horticole”.