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
