This page features scenes of flower gardens, a popular poster theme for home decoration. These images are the perfect wall accessory for a sunroom, breezeway, screened porch or breakfast nook. 

    While gardening dates back to ancient times, decorative flower gardens like those featured in the above posters became popular in the 19^th century, surrounding cottages and modest homes in addition to palaces and luxurious buildings.  More importantly,  gardening style had evolved from manicured greenery and geometric pathways to a more relaxed design – featuring a color palette painted with flowers. The cottage garden, with a loose, country style, was one of the most popular flower garden types.  It was seen in rural England, France and other parts of Europe before catching on in the Americas.  Cottage gardens, still common around today’s homes, maximize small spaces by densely planting flowers, herbs and other practical plants.  Common flower types include hardy perennials and shrubs, such as geraniums, roses, delphiniums and hollyhocks.  Other common flower garden styles include the more manicured Baroque and the more natural Landscape and Arts&Crafts floral gardens. 

      Because of their colorful, scenic nature, flower gardens often inspired paintings, particularly during the impressionist era.  Most famous, of course, is Monet’s elaborate garden at Giverney – you can find many of his floral scenes in our poster collection.   

            If you are interested in individual flower types, definitely check out the floral gallery in our botanical section.  It really serves as a flower identification guide – you can click on any of the flower types in the left hand column of that page to view a variety of close-up paintings and prints. We also have resources on our flower links page.