In 2013 Portmeirion introduced a new dinner plate in the Botanic Garden range, the Sunflower:
The Sunflower also appears on mugs and jugs:
Here the Sunflower is on three different plate sizes:
Apart from the large salad bowl, still missing here, there is a 5.5 inch salad bowl:
and an 8 inch pasta bowl:
It is a delightful flower in the Botanic Garden
The original Botanic Garden 8 inch Soup plates had the same motifs as the Bread and Butter plates:
The Trailing Bindweed, the Citron, the Daisy, the Spanish Gum Cistus, the Meadow Saffron and the Barbados Aloe.
The Trailing Bindweed here with the many-coloured butterfly.
The Citron:
The Daisy, simple and beautiful, an original motif that is available in Botanic Garden to the present day.
The Spanish Gum Cistus, one of my favourites:
The Meadow Saffron:
Here with real Meadow Saffrons:
The Barbados Aloe, together with the Citron retired too soon:
The Spring Gentian was the next motif on the Soup plates:
Later Soup Plate motifs:
The Small Narcissus, the Ivy Leafed Cyclamen, Snow-Drop and Crocus, the Trailing Bindweed (new version), the Barbados Cotton Flower and the Blue Primrose.
The Rhododendron, the Fuchsia, the Sweet William, Snow-Drop and Crocus (dark version), the Pansy and the Barbados Cotton Flower.
The Trailing Bindweed had a butterfly change, the later version with the yellow butterfly is still available in the Botanic Garden range:
The Barbados Cotton Flower had two versions in Soup plates:
The Snow-Drop and Crocus occurred in a darker and a lighter version:
The Sweet William is a salad plate motif, but here it is on a soup plate:
Here is a Barbados Aloe plate without the name:
There is a Mistletoe soup plate:
Ofcourse the Butterflies range had soup plates:
And here is the Do-It-Yourself Soup Plate:
Some soup plates were produced with dinner plate motifs:
Here are the Flowered Chrysanthemum, the Lily Flowered Azalea, the Sweet Pea, the Christmas Rose and the Afican Lily.
Of all the Soup plates the Spring Gentian is an all time favourite. It was among my first set of six soup plates, although I did not know then it was going to be such a rare motif.
When the Botanic Garden range was launched in 1972 these were the original 8 inch salad plates:
They are the Water Melon, the Night Flowering Cactus, the Dog Rose, the Red Pepper, the Eastern Hyacinth and the Woody Nightshade. These motifs also appeared on the original 13 inch platters. They have all been retired now. I am very fond of the dark reds, greens and browns, the insects and the almost scary flowers of these early motifs.
Some of the original salad motifs had two versions, such as the Eastern Hyacinth, first with brown butterflies and then blue ones:
And the Woody Nightshade, originally with a dark brown butterfly and a huge bumble bee:
There is a double version of the Spanish Gum Cistus, a motif that appeared on the soup plates and the bread and butter plates:
The double Spanish Gum Cistus looks really well on a salad plate:
The Cistus later appeared in a pink version, the Purple Rock Rose:
The Slender Columbine also has two versions:
In 1981 a special series of salad plates was commissioned by Bloomingdales in New York. 250 plates with the Eastern Hyacinth and 250 with the Dog Rose , all with a gold leaf border, were specially produced. Mine has the Eastern Hyacinth:
The backside has a special backstamp for the osccasion:
More salad plates :
The Treasure Flower, the Sweet William, the Belladonna Lily, the Purple Rock Rose, the Blue Iris and the Garden Lilac. Of these, the Treasure Flower was the pink version of the African Daisy, one of the original dinner plate motifs:
The Garden Lilac appeared on a millennium plate in 2000:
A few salad plates, including the Garden Lilac, were also produced without the Botanic Garden leaf border:
the Blue Iris, the Eastern Hyacinth and the Sweet William:
Other salad plate motifs are the Poppy, introduced in 2014,
the Pink Parrot Tulip and the Hydrangea :
The Blue Hydrangea plates:
Botanic Garden has a range of Christmas plates called Mistletoe:
In 1998 Portmeirion introduced Options, a new addition to the Botanic Garden range, complementary pieces that can mix and match with existing Botanic Garden items.
As a collector I thought I should have at least one Options plate in my collection, here it is:
The new Exotic Botanic Garden range also has the 8 inch salad plates, featuring the Hawaiian Hibiscus, the Moth Orchid, the White Waterlily,the Red Ginger, the Bird of Paradise and the Dragonfly:
And the Botanic Birds also have salad plates. They are the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Chickadee, Lesser Goldfinch, Western Bluebird, and Scarlet Tanager:
In the last few years several dinner plate motifs have also appeared on salad plates, such as the Shrubby Peony, the Christmas Rose, the Foxglove and the Virgins Bower:
Here are the Asiatic Magnolia, the Flowered Chrysanthemum and the Honeysuckle:
A special range of 8 inch plates was produced in the nineties, the Christmas Plates:
Starting in 1993 with the Christmas Rose, followed by the Shrubby Peony, the Flowered Chrysanthemum, the Virgins Bower, the Blue Passion Flower, the Honeysuckle, the Lily Flowered Azalea
and the last one, in 2000, the Sweet William:
The Butterflies were specially made for the USA:
The Daisy usually appears on soup plates and bread and butter plates:
Here is a rare example of an 8 inch salad plate in the Ladies Flower Garden range with a Botanic Garden leaf border:
The following plates have the Botanic Garden leaf border with Pomona motifs, the Roman Apricot and the Late Duke Cherry:
The following plates have a Variations motif combined with a Botanic Garden leaf border:
These salad plates have different shapes:
and there is this one
Like the Botanic Garden range, the Birds of Britain started out with sets of six different plates. The 11 inch dinnerplates were the Grey Phalarope, the Little Egret, the Magpie, the Harlequin Duck, the Barnowl and the Black Cock:
The Barnowl was thought to bring bad luck in some countries and was therefore withdrawn. The Black Cock was also withdrawn,”as its name was thought to discourage sales”. They were replaced by the Wood Duck and the Common Sandpiper:
The older dinnerplates have the green band, but I have two with another border, the Harlequin Duck and the Magpie:
Portmeirion also created a series of four Birds of America:
They are the Mallard, the Pintail, the Bobwhite Quail and the Ruffed Grouse. Here they have the Botanic Garden leafed border. There are more items in this short-lived range, such as a set of 4 inch mugs:
There are six different 8 inch salad plates:
They are the Waxwing, the White Wagtail, the Turtle Dove, the Roller, the Rose Coloured Starling and the Hoopoo.
I have four of these plates in the borderless variety:
Here is the Rose Coloured Starling with another border:
The 8 inch soup plates and the 6 inch bread and butter plates have the same birds:
They are the Nuthatch, the Bullfinch, the Nightingale, the Chaffinch, the Cirl Bunting and the Kingfisher.
My plates all have the old green band, later Portmeirion introduced the oak leafed border:
Except for the changes in the dinner plates, Portmeirion kept the same birds on the plates all the time. A new range of birds was introduced recently, the Botanic Garden Birds:
They are the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Chickadee, Lesser Goldfinch, Western Bluebird, and Scarlet Tanager. Lovely birds, on dinnerplates with the Botanic Garden Border.
The Botanic Garden range has a new motif, the Arborea.
Here is the 10 inch dinner plate:
Recently I found this 8 inch no border salad plate:
