Beautiful Vintage Winter Botanical Prints to Download
Winter might not be the first season that springs to mind when you think of beautiful plants and flowers, but plenty of botanical beauty remains, even when most of the garden has gone to sleep. From bright red winter berries and glossy evergreens to colourful Christmas flowers, nature has its own way of brightening up the colder months.
I've gathered together 30 beautiful vintage winter and botanical illustrations, featuring traditional Christmas plants alongside flowers, shrubs and trees that look wonderful at this time of year. If you enjoyed my collection of vintage winter bird illustrations, think of this as the botanical companion. After all, those lovely robins and waxwings need somewhere to perch!
How to Download the Winter Botanical Prints
All 32 vintage botanical illustrations in this collection are free to download and print.
Click the title above your chosen image. This will open a higher-resolution version in a new browser tab. You can then right-click and select Save Image As to download it to your computer.
Once saved, you can print the images at home or use them for your own creative projects.
I particularly like these old botanical prints on slightly textured paper or watercolour paper. They look lovely framed, but you could also use them for Christmas decorations, decoupage, gift wrapping or vintage-style festive stationery. The blog has a tutorial for a fun way to display vintage Christmas botanicals.
Beautiful Winter Flowers
Who says winter has to be all bare branches and brown leaves? Some lovely flowers are associated with the colder months, and many have become Christmas favourites. There's the cheerful poinsettia and delicate Christmas rose, which always seem to put on a show just when the rest of the garden is having a rest.
If you're particularly fond of festive blooms, I've got a whole collection of vintage poinsettia illustrations and other Christmas flowers to explore.
With its bright red leaves and festive good looks, the poinsettia has become one of the most recognisable Christmas plants. Originally from Mexico, it's actually the colourful leaves, called bracts, rather than the tiny flowers that give it its cheerful appearance.
From The Floral Cabinet and Magazine of Exotic Botany by G. B. Knowles and Frederic Westcott.
Plate by Lena Lowis from Familiar Indian Flowers, 1878.
Print 3. Poinsettia With Berries
From Pierre Bernard's Le Jardin des Plantes: Description complète, historique et pittoresque du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle.
Print 4. Poinsettia Pulcherrima
Poinsettia pulcherrima rosea-carminata plate 68 from The Floral Magazine, by Worthington G. Smith, John N. Fitch and Walter H. Fitch.
With its enormous trumpet-shaped flowers and tall, elegant stems, the amaryllis certainly knows how to make an entrance. It's a favourite winter houseplant, often flowering in gorgeous shades of red, pink and white, bringing a welcome splash of colour when there's not much happening in the garden.
Stylised red amaryllis blooms with long green leaves, artwork by Hannah Borger Overbeck.
From Revue Horticole.
Plate 444 from Edwards ' Botanical Register. On Pictureboxblue, there is a collection of 120 different flowers from Edwards Botanical Register.
Print 8. Tasmanian Christmas Bells
Tasmanian Christmas bells (Blandfordia punicea) are a lovely reminder that Christmas isn't all about snow and evergreens. Native to Tasmania, these unusual flowers have dangling, bell-shaped blooms in cheerful shades of red, orange and yellow. They flower in late spring and early summer, just in time for an Australian Christmas. With their festive colours, it's easy to see how they got their name, and they look particularly charming in vintage botanical illustrations.
Also from Edwards ' Botanical Register, volume 31, 1845.
The Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) is a lovely little winter flower, often blooming when most of the garden is fast asleep. Despite its name, it's not actually a rose but a type of hellebore, with delicate white flowers that sometimes turn pink as they age. It's one of those cheerful winter surprises, bringing life to the garden on cold, grey days.
Plate 33 by Abraham Jacobus Wendel from Heinrich Witte's Flora, 1868.
Print 10. Bunch of Christmas Roses
Assorted Christmas rose (Helleborus) flowers in red, pink, white and green, vintage botanical plate from The Garden illustrated horticultural journal.
Camellias bring a lovely splash of colour to the garden in late winter and early spring, when most other plants are still resting. With their glossy evergreen leaves and beautiful rose-like flowers in shades of pink, red and white, they're a welcome sight on chilly days. Some varieties even flower around Christmas.
From Annales de la Société royale d'agriculture et de botanique de Gand.
Winter Shrubs, Bushes & Berries
This is where winter starts to get really colourful. Bright berries, glossy leaves, and evergreen branches help make up for the lack of flowers in the garden. Holly and mistletoe are the obvious Christmas favourites, but plenty of other beautiful winter plants add colour, from red-berried cotoneaster to winter-flowering heathers and colourful dogwood stems.
I've already gathered a lovely collection of vintage holly illustrations, including traditional botanical drawings and festive prints, if you'd like even more Christmas greenery.
Plate 10 by E. Hervegh from La plante et ses applications ornementales.
Print 13. More European Mistletoe
De l’Histoire universelle du règne végétal.
Print 15. Decorative Holy Wreath
By Hannah Borger Overbeck
Painted by Mary Vaux Walcott for North American Wild Flowers, 1925
From Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe
Rose hips are one of nature’s little winter treasures, adding cheerful splashes of red and orange to bare hedgerows long after the roses have finished flowering. These colourful fruits often linger well into winter, providing a welcome feast for birds when other food is scarce.
By Mary Vaux Walcott for North American Wild Flowers, 1925.
Cranberries add another splash of colour to the winter landscape, with their bright red berries and delicate evergreen leaves. These low-growing plants thrive in cool, boggy places, and their tart berries have become a Christmas favourite, especially in sauces and festive baking.
Painted by Mary Vaux Walcott for North American Wild Flowers, 1925.
Plate 383 from Flora Batava.
An 1838 plate by David Dietrich.
Dogwood is one of those shrubs that really comes into its own in winter. Once its leaves have fallen, its colourful stems take centre stage, bringing lovely shades of bright red, orange and yellow to an otherwise bare garden.
Nandina, also known as heavenly bamboo, is a lovely shrub that really earns its place in the winter garden. Its delicate, bamboo-like leaves often turn beautiful shades of red and bronze as the weather gets colder, while clusters of bright red berries add an extra splash of festive colour. Despite its name, it's not actually a bamboo at all!
Japanese ink and colour drawing by Megata, circa 1870, from the Library of Congress collection.
Cotoneaster is one of those cheerful shrubs that really brightens up the winter garden. Its branches are often covered in masses of tiny red or orange berries that look especially lovely against the frost. Some varieties keep their glossy green leaves all winter, adding even more colour to the garden. The berries are also a favourite with hungry birds, making cotoneaster a welcome sight on chilly winter days.
From Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1917.
Evergreen Trees & Conifers
It wouldn't be a winter botanical collection without a few fir trees, spruces and pines. Evergreen trees are such a familiar part of the Christmas season, but there's something rather wonderful about their botanical illustrations too. Those fine needles, interesting cones and layered branches look quite beautiful when drawn in detail.
And it's not all about Christmas trees. Cedars, junipers, yews and other conifers bring plenty of variety, with some lovely shades of blue-green and silvery foliage.
If you enjoy the intricate details of conifers, have a look at my collection of vintage botanical pine cone drawings. I also have a wider selection of woodland botanical prints featuring trees, leaves, and other forest finds, plus a collection of fabulous Larousse tree posters.
Painted by Mary Vaux Walcott for North American Wild Flowers, 1925.
Snow-covered balsam fir (Abies balsamea) on Bog Road, Campton, New Hampshire, illustrated by F. Schuyler Mathews for Familiar Trees and Their Leaves, 1911.
From Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen nach der Natur.
Botanical engraving from Revue horticole, 1866.
Plate 934 from Louis van Houtte's Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe.
Illustrated by Georg Dionysius Ehret and engraved by Johann Jacob Haid for Christopher Jacob Trew's Plantae Selectae.
More Vintage Nature Prints for Winter and Christmas
I hope these winter botanical illustrations have given you a little inspiration for some seasonal decorating or crafting. There's something lovely about bringing a bit of nature indoors at this time of year, even if it's only in the form of an old botanical print.
If you'd like more seasonal nature art, don't miss my winter bird illustrations, with everything from Christmas robins to snowy Japanese bird prints. You might also enjoy the beautiful Japanese autumn and winter flower prints by Tanigami Kōnan. They have a completely different look from traditional European botanical illustrations.
Don't forget to check out Henry Fletcher's winter bouquets from his 12 Months of Flowers.
And for even more old-fashioned festive inspiration, I've gathered lots of free vintage Christmas images elsewhere on the blog.
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