Answer 08 of 12
What counts as editorial versus commercial use for flower stock photos?
Botanical subjects are mostly clear of the usual traps, but gardens, brands in frame and health claims still need care.
For most stock libraries this is a fraught question, because most stock libraries are full of people and logos. A botanical catalogue is simpler, but not entirely simple.
The general position
Every image here is licensed for commercial use. You may put it on packaging, in advertising, on a product, and in a campaign, without asking and without an upgrade.
That is the default because a photograph of a plant, taken in a place where photography was permitted, carries no personality rights and no trademark. There is nobody to release and no mark to clear.
The three cases that need care
Recognisable private property. A garden can be as identifiable as a face. If an image page notes that a location is a private garden or a named estate, do not use it to advertise a competing garden, nursery or tourism service without asking us. Editorial use of the same frame is unproblematic.
Marks inside the frame. Occasionally a nursery label, a pot stamp or a packaging element is legible in a shot. It is your responsibility to check the frame you are actually using. Cloning out a legible brand mark is permitted by the licence and is usually the fastest fix.
Claims about the plant. This is the one that matters most in practice. A photograph of a plant is not evidence that the plant does anything. If your packaging says a botanical ingredient soothes, heals or treats, the burden of substantiating that sits entirely with you, and the photograph neither helps nor hurts. We mention it because the queries we receive on this subject are almost always from people about to print a claim.
Species accuracy in editorial work
If you are publishing in a context where the identification matters, use the botanical name recorded on the image page and nothing more. Where no species is recorded, none was documented, and inventing one for a caption is how errors get into print. If you need identification confirmed for a specific frame, ask before publication rather than after.
Sensitive framings
Do not use a photograph in a way that implies a real, identifiable person or organisation endorses something. That is a general rule rather than a botanical one, but it applies here as everywhere.
If a use sits in an area this page does not cover, describe it to us in a couple of sentences. A short answer in writing before you commit to a print run is cheaper than the alternative.