Free Printable Vintage Iris Illustrations
Welcome spring into your home with this collection of beautiful free printable vintage iris illustrations.
I’m a guy, so flowers don’t necessarily rank real high on my list of priorities. I’d say they fall somewhere between drapery shopping and vacuuming. It’s not that I don’t like flowers…I do. You’d have to be an unfeeling monster not to appreciate them in some way. But a rose is a carnation is a tulip, if you catch my drift.
It wasn’t until my first time shopping for plants/shrubs/flowers with Handan in the spring of 2014 that I came face-to-face with a flower that stopped me dead in my tracks.
This flower was regal.
It was important. I could feel its power and hold over me.
This flower meant something.
I wanted it. I had to have it!
Gently, I reached for my treasure and placed it in the cart. What a magnificent specimen! I felt I had unlocked some botanical secret to which only I was privy. Surely no one else knew the importance of this staggering eruption of beauty!
I wheeled the cart to where my babes was gawking at an enormous emerald green arborvitae. “Arbit vie-ree” she called them, as “arborvitae” was a little too tough for her Turkish tongue to wrangle. I couldn’t wait to show her the cascading petals of foggy-ocean blues and radiant violets – form and color in perfect harmony.
“My babes,” I said in hushed tones, “look.”
She tore her eyes from the emerald giant and planted them on my bearded iris. Her mouth turned down at the corners. She flicked her eyes up to meet mine.
“I don’t like irises, my babes,” she said, and that was that. Crestfallen, I wheeled my prize back to the counter at which we met and placed it back among its peers.
“Someday,” I whispered and turned back to help my babes pick the two best-looking arbit vie-rees to flank our front entry.
The years rolled by, and I’ve yet to plant or enjoy an iris in our garden. But I haven’t given up hope! To me, there is no flower more beautiful than the iris. And so many colors and shapes! I consider them to be the poor-man’s orchid. Every so often when we’re in a nursery, I direct Handan’s attention to a bearded iris or a Siberian iris in the hopes that she’ll begin to see the beauty that I do in their ethereal blooms.
And I think it may be working!
When it came time to pick a flower for these vintage illustrations, Handan said, “you like irises, my babes, but I never let you have one, so I’ll make iris printables.”
It may be just a printable, but it’s a start. It’s progress, madam!
With luck, I may have myself a bearded iris with which to greet the spring of 2022!
Until then, I’ll have a few vintage iris illustrations on the wall, and that will keep me going until I can plant the real deal in the dirt outside our front door.
We love to see our printables out in the wild! If you display our free printables in your home or use our free SVGs in your projects, and take a picture and post it on Instagram, be sure to tag us @TheNavagePatch!
Free Printable Vintage Iris Illustrations
We designed these 12 free printable vintage iris illustrations in two sizes: 16×20 inch and 24×36 inch. But as our JPG files are high resolution, you can scale them up or down as necessary. 24×36 inch scales down easily to 20×30 / 16×24 / 12×18 / 8×12 / 4×6 inches, and 16×20 inch scales down to 12×15 / 8×10 / 4×5 inches with no problems. If you need help with scaling down these printables so you can print them on your home printer, then make sure you check out Handan’s “How To Easily Resize Pictures” post.
Note: If you don’t have a large format printer like the Canon i8720 Printer (prints up to 13×19 inches) and are wondering the best place to get these large printables printed bigger than 8×12, we recommend trying Staples in your area or Amazon print shop. Both stores offer custom-sized prints on matte or glossy paper, and they both cost about the same. Staples also offers Engineering Prints, which are really affordable for large-format prints, but in some areas (like ours), they must be ordered from their online print shop.
Now it’s time to click on the button below to download today’s free printable vintage Iris illustrations – you’ll find them under the “Vintage Illustrations” and “Spring” sections of The VIP Patch.
take me to your
amazing freebies library
If you’re not a Navage Patch VIP, you won’t be able to access our Freebies Library. But that can be easily fixed! Subscribe for free on the form below and become a Navage Patch VIP. Once you subscribe, a password will be sent to you in our Welcome email, and that will give you access to The VIP Patch [Freebies Library].
Thanks so much for the lovely Iris pintables, Greg! Several years ago, I went for a walk in the woods behind my Mom and Dad’s old house. This particular area was right before a swamp. I dug up about 6 iris plants for our garden. Now, they’ve spread to at least 20! These are the purple Louisiana Iris with some gold near the center – go LSU!
My husband and I were talking yesterday about splitting up some of the clumps to plant in other flower beds around the house. Irises really are gorgeous and the best is that the foliage stays green year round.
Oh wow, I’d love to find some in the wild! I’ve only seen them in pots at Home Depot nursery, lol! The good news is that Handan has now given me permission to plant on in the back yard. Woo hoo! 🙂
Really? Permission? Wow ! I have grown all kinds of iris over the years and no one , yes I said no one, would dare to deny me the pleasure of having these in my gardens . They are ephemeral enough that I can’t see how anyone who even hates them could put up a fuss . Their blooms don’t last that long (maybe a week or two) and while in bloom offer some gorgeous color that would otherwise be missing in the spring garden. A lot of spring flowers are white or yellow so the glorious range of iris blooms fill a void of color .
I’m lucky in that I recently moved into a house with a badly overgrown clump of irises—though I have no idea what color they are! It’s like a wonderful surprise.
So I’m looking at Amazon photo prints (thanks for the heads-up), and I don’t think I wsnt glossy—is “luster” still glossy? Or should I just choose matte? Any input appreciated. Thanks, Greg & Handan!
Ooooh, good for you! That’ll be fun to see what pops up! Amazon’s luster is more like a satin than a gloss from what I can understand from their description.
Posted to Insta and tagged you. Looks great, very happy!
Thank you, Rebecca!
Thank you so much for these stunning images. I love Irises ?
You’re welcome, Clare! 🙂
Thank you for these!! I share the love of Irises and even named one of my daughters Iris! I can hardly wait to add a few of these prints to her room.
You’re welcome, Karley! I hope Iris likes them! 🙂
Omg, these are just to adorable. Thank you for sharing them. ?
you’re very welcome, Ivory! 🙂
Iris are my very favorite flowers!! My daughter drew one for me and it was my first tattoo!! The variety iris’s offer are amazing! Thank you.
It is our pleasure! Glad you like them!
Greg, the FedEx Office stores also have the ability to print beautiful large size prints on various types of paper.
At Christmas, I needed prints of a beautiful, glossy card stock information card on Polish Pottery. We ordered multiple pieces but only one card was included. I was going to be close to a FedEx Office store so I stopped in it for the copies. Well, when they handed me the copies I could not tell which was the original and which were copies. So, another source for prints, etc. that can’t be done at home.
That’s great info, Connie, especially since we have one just down the street a ways!
My mom & both of my grandmothers always had iris in their flower beds. When my sister bought my grandmothers house she divided the iris & I planted some in my flower bed. I love to see them bloom every year & brings back memories of my grandmother.
Soon I’ll get to see it too. Can’t wait! 🙂
Ohhh be still my heart! Iris is my weakness of the flower world. It will cause me to lie to my husband about how many more are coming this year in the mail. My passion. My heart. I have over 300 varieties and have approximately 1000 more on my must have list. I can’t wait to print some of these, or all. I so love you and Handan’s site. If a loyal fan sent you some iris, I mean, you would have to grow it right?!
Anne, I would be honored. Of course I’d grow it! Email me at greg@thenavagepatch.com Thank you!
My mom was a wonderful gardener, and had beautiful irises. Thank you you so much, it brings back memories.
You’re welcome! 🙂
Greg!!! Irises are the undisputed King of flowers….in my very humble opinion! Just check webpage for Schreiner’s Irises. Find a corner in your garden/yard to toss in a few iris rhizomes and you will be rewarded for years to come. I have “dragged” my Mom’s irises to places I have lived all over this country; they will always have a special nook/cranny! I just love the simple but O so lovely prints contained in today’s newsletter….thank you for sharing!!!
You are so very welcome, Sue! 🙂
I absolutely adore Iris flowers, so this is perfect for me! I think I have 7 different varieties in the garden at the moment. They were one of my Nan’s favourite flowers, as well as being her name, so it’s a nice way to bring some memories into the garden and life.
I’m so happy you like them, Kayleigh! 🙂