Pattern Guide: Botanic Garden

Over 50 years old, our Botanic Garden design continues to adorn tables across the world every single day. Designed by our founding mother, Susan Williams-Ellis, in 1972, it was created to bring the outside in, giving the impression of a beautiful English garden when laid out on the table.  

Continuing to be inspired by the beauty of nature, Portmeirion has continued to grow the heritage collection with new designs that take inspiration from the original pattern. Explore the current Botanic Garden collection below... 

A timeless classic, Botanic Garden took its inspiration from a hand-coloured herbal book Susan had stumbled upon while shopping in London. She bought the book for 50 guineas and by the time she returned home to Stoke-on-Trent, she had already visualised her next tableware range – a range that would come alive with different flowers blooming across ceramics held together by the now iconic three-leaf border.  

Going against the grain, Susan created individual motifs for each piece in the collection. A very innovative decision at the time. By using the laurel leaf border on each product, Susan created a cohesive collection, and the iconic Botanic Garden was born.

Botanic Garden continues to be crafted with love at our Stoke-on-Trent factory, where Susan first designed and manufactured the collection over 50 years ago. The beautiful floral motifs continue to adorn each piece, creating a stunning mix-and-match collection for the home. From tableware and serveware to gifts and glassware, the Botanic Garden range is a collector’s dream. 

The latest addition to our Botanic Garden family, Botanic Garden Meadow offers a colourful twist to the original pattern with its vibrant laurel leaf borders. The beautiful floral motifs, which include the much-loved favourites - sunflower, azalea, poppy, foxglove, sweet pea and hydrangea - are surrounded by six uplifting colours to match the floral scenes.  

Made in our Stoke-on-Trent factory, Botanic Garden Meadow is perfect for injecting some colour into the home. Choose from dinner plates, side plates and tea plates, as well as mugs, teacups and saucers and different size bowls perfect for prepping and serving. A versatile collection, made with the Botanic Garden collector in mind, you can style it alone choosing just the colour or floral design you prefer, or layer it with your existing Botanic Garden pieces for a mix-and-match setting. 

An award-winning collection, Botanic Garden Harmony brings a retro look with a modern twist to the floral range. Featuring striking butterfly motifs, embossed detailing and five eye-catching colourways, the collection makes a style statement alone while also being the perfect complement to the other collections in the Botanic Garden set.  

A warming colour palette of amber, forest green, moss, stone, and white can be seen across a range of plates, bowls, dinner sets, and serveware. On key pieces, such as mugs, a teapot, and a sugar bowl, heritage butterfly motifs taken from the original 1972 design take centre stage. To add further intrigue, the green laurel leaf border is showcased in a wonderful, embossed style adding a beautiful tactile quality to the ceramic pieces.

Inspired by two of our much-loved collections, the UK-made Botanic Garden Papilio range features the floral motifs and iconic laurel leaf synonymous with the classic Botanic Garden design, but with the modern touches of Botanic Garden Harmony.  

Archival florals, not currently featured across any other Botanic Garden ranges, are set against a creamy white background across plates, bowls and dinner sets. The leaf detailing wraps around the edge of each piece, as you’d expect, but in the tactile embossed style like Botanic Garden Harmony, subtly enclosing the detailed centre. 

The collection takes its name from the Latin word for ‘butterfly’, inspired by the butterfly motifs that accompany each flower and which are showcased across a selection of teacups and saucers in colours of amethyst, emerald, amber and opal. An eye-catching tableware range that adds a vibrant pop of colour to your table.