You’ll not find a fairer rose than those depicted in our 16 beautiful free printable vintage rose illustrations!
Last spring, I planted my very first rose.
It was really just a stick with a ball of dirt on one end, but the box it came in promised a red tea rose. I’d never owned a rose, so I thought they all started out as sticks from Home Depot.
With great care, I brought the stick home and prepared a hole for it. After tossing in a few coins for luck, I plunged the stick into the hole and filled it in with brown earth.
Like a good gardener, I dutifully watered it each and every day and waited for some magic. It was hard during those early days.
I kinda felt like an ass, throwing away good water on a thorny stick like that.
After all, The Internet said that sticks like mine rarely grow at all.
The Internet said that even if my stick favored me with growth, it would never bloom the year it was planted.
You know something? The Internet says a lot of things, and very often, The Internet is full of crap.
Such was the case with my stick.
Despite what the “experts” claimed, my stick flourished and flowered, and I thumbed my nose at the collective wisdom of The Internet.
I had won! I had created beautiful life from a stupid barbed stick!
But then something happened over the winter.
Or perhaps it was our biblically wet spring that robbed me of my rosemary plants, murdered my asparagus and brought death to our delightful little dogwood.
Whatever had happened, be it the cold of winter or the rain of spring, my proud and noble rose became a stick once more.
But this time, there would be no miraculous bloom.
My stick was going to stay a stick forever.
If there’s one thing my short-lived stick taught me, it’s that growing roses isn’t for the casual gardener or the faint of heart.
They are demanding and unforgiving, and they require a level of knowledge that I don’t have and a level of dedication I’m not prepared to invest.
So when I look at the beautiful vintage rose illustrations we’re offering you today, I am awed by their perfection. Such specimens in nature would be a sight to behold!
I know there are people out there who can grow roses like these, and I salute them! However, I shall never be one of them.
So for all those like me who can turn a rose into a stick, we must content ourselves with these gorgeous vintage rose illustrations and leave the real roses to those with a clue!
Happy printing!
*******
As usual, here’s some information on these free printable vintage rose illustrations: we designed today’s free vintage botanical prints in three sizes: 8.5×11 inch, 16×20 inch and 24×36 inch. The 8.5×11 inch printables are PDFs, so they are not scalable. But the 16×20 inch and 24×36 inch printables are JPGs, so 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.
Also, 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 vintage rose illustrations 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 rose illustrations – you’ll find them under the Vintage Illustrations section of The VIP Patch.
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] and today’s free printables. If you didn’t receive our Welcome email, can’t find the password or have any other questions on this process or on our free printables, please check our Printables FAQ page.
If you display our free printables in your home, be sure to take a picture and post it on Instagram! Don’t forget to tag us @TheNavagePatch! We love to see our printables out in the wild!
We love it when you share our posts on Facebook and Pinterest!
Laura says
Beautiful prints! May I ask where you got the little round clock? I’ve been looking for one like that!
Greg says
Thank you, Laura! I don’t have a link for that particular clock, but here’s a similar one on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WuKnlB
Donna G says
Beautiful prints. Two things, though. 1. FAINT of heart. 2. Knockout roses. They’re like a Timex watch – they take a licking a nd keep on ticking.
I enjoy your work, even if I’ll never attain your level. Keep it coming!
Greg says
Thank you, Donna! Ooops, good catch! I’ll fix it! Knockout roses, eh? I’m sure I can find a way to knock them out!
Marilee Hird says
Some of these are identical to ones my mother had a VERY long time ago. Thanks so much.
Greg says
You’re very welcome, Marilee! I hope they bring back good memories for you! 🙂
Lindy says
Dear Handan,
I find it very irksome (young ears are tender I must remember) when growers ever so conveniently “forget” to provide the instructions that certain roses must be dug up in the fall and laid sideways roots and all into a wee trough you have dug and then be covered by at least six inches of soil with a good amount of mulch on top of the that layer. This does not apply to ramblers or bushes nor absolutely all tea roses, but a quick bit of research will let you know if the roses you want are of this type. Do not ever give up after one try as that is not the Handan we have grown to cherish, bwahahahaha.
regards,
Linda
Greg says
Jeez, yeah, that would have been good to know! Okay, it seems like I may have to try again! 🙂
Catherine Williams says
Thanks for these beautiful prints Handan i have always loved Redoute roses prints, problem is at the moment i can’t remember the V I P patch password. Roses are not the easiest things to grow, mine seem to get everything, black spot, greenfly etc and just when they are in full bloom down comes the torrential Welsh rain to ruin them 🙁
Handan says
You’re so very welcome, Catherine! I knew you all would like it, hence I asked Greg to get this post out at the soonest 😉 The password to the VIP Patch should be at the top of the latest email you received from us. Let me know if you still have issues getting into the VIP Patch, ok?
-Handan, xo
angela bradley says
these roses are gorgeous. I love the quality of your printables. the sugar skulls and the star wars are my favorites. I am hoping for something more modern though. if you can, sometime.. I do appreciate all your hard work on our behalf.
Greg says
Thank you, Angela! We’re happy to branch out with our printables! Please email me an example of what you mean by more modern. greg@thenavagepatch.com
Derry says
Thank you, so much, for these! They are wonderful!
Greg says
You’re welcome, Derry! Enjoy them! 🙂
Wendy O'Carroll says
Happy to have ‘bought you a coffee’ across the airwaves – the very least I can do to thank you for all your glorious printables 🙂 Thankyou. (The coffee will appear under oliverhellowell.com not Wendy O’Carroll – confusing I know but hey!) Oh and don’t give up on rose sticks! Not EVER!! Do it again and just cover your rose next winter or put it in a big pot and bring it indoors 🙂 Problem solved 🙂
Greg says
Hey Wendy! Thank you so very much! Have a great weekend! 🙂 (I’ll keep your rose advice in mind for next year!)
Kathy Vanderslice says
These are beautiful, they will go perfect in my sunroom. I printed the laundry patent pictures and framed them and put them in my laundry room, they were perfect. Thank you for all the beautiful printables, and Greg’s posts are hilarious, I love reading them. Sent y’all some coffee, so enjoy!!
Greg says
Hi Kathy, thank you so much! We love to hear that our printables go to good use! 🙂
Stacye says
Definitely Knockout roses are the way to go. I don’t have patience for regular roses. All that pruning, not for me. Give me the knockouts that even grow beautifully in red Georgia clay and they drop their own spent flowers and keep on knocking new roses out. 😂
Greg says
Knockouts seem to be the way to go. They’ll be my next rose experiment! 🙂
Debbie says
The floral and bird prints are so beautiful! And although it is mid-July, I went ahead and collected some of your Christmas offerings. And to top it off, you had a vintage page from one of my favorite books “Anne of Green Gables”. Thank you for your gifts of such beauty!!
Kathy Allen says
Loved those rose prints. I finally got tired of treating expensive rose bushes like an annual and went to Rugosas (like a beach rose). Maybe not as pretty as a tea rose, but oh, so fragrant! Great for potpourri, too! Freezing and thawing are NOT good for roses and so many other tender plants. A load of mulch over them helps! I throw my banana peels on them year round as they need potassium. Whatever I am doing is working caz they are 7′ tall! And this is in Maine.
Greg says
Wow! That is huge! I’ll have to try those. Thanks for the tip, Kathy! 🙂