In the Flower Garden. Plant Motifs on Chodzież Porcelain and Porcelite

Cups, vases and cake stands from a single Polish factory, chosen for one thing: the flowers and leaves painted and printed on them. Piotr Marzec, a florist from Zamość, is showing part of his Chodzież porcelain collection inside the Kościuszko Manor House, in the grounds of the UMCS Botanical Garden, until 30 October 2026. The Garden publishes no English text, so the quotation below is our translation of its Polish description.

UMCS Botanical Garden on the exhibition:

On display are pieces from the largest collection of porcelain and porcelite in Poland, which belongs to Master Florist Piotr Marzec from Zamość. His collection of Chodzież porcelain is the fruit of many years of interest and searching.

The main theme of this exhibition is plant motifs in the decoration of Chodzież porcelain and porcelite. In the rooms of the Manor House you can see cups, vases and cake stands decorated in a range of techniques over more than 80 years.

The exhibition includes more than 100 objects, through which you can follow changing trends and fashions, not only in the variety of decoration and the techniques used to ornament porcelain and porcelite, but also in the shapes produced by the Chodzież Porcelain and Porcelite Works.

What to expect

This one is indoors, inside the manor house. That matters here, because most of the seven shows the Garden lists as current are set up outdoors. The Garden does not say which rooms the pieces are in. The Lublin news site Lublin112 wrote in July of the manor’s “guest rooms”, which the porcelain was then sharing with watercolours by Adam Papke.

The show works because it is narrow: one factory, one decorative theme, eight decades of output. You watch the same floral idea change as cup shapes and decorating techniques change around it. The Garden publishes no object list and no pattern names, so we do not single out individual pieces.

The dates. The exhibition page says the show has been open since 14 May 2026, while the opening reception, according to the Garden’s announcement and its events calendar, took place on Sunday 24 May at 16:00. It closes on 30 October, one day before the Garden ends its season.

Context

Chodzież is a small town in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska), in western Poland, on the railway line from Poznań to Piła. Ceramics have been made there since 1855, when two merchants from Frankfurt an der Oder set up a faience works in the old Grudziński castle. A separate porcelain factory followed at the end of the 19th century, and after 1945 the town’s works made both porcelain and porcelite.

Porcelit, as the Poles call it, is a white or cream, glazed ceramic fired much like porcelain but usually from lower-grade raw materials. We know of no established English term; some foreign antique dealers simply anglicise it as “porcelite”, and so do we. The practical difference: thin porcelain lets light through, porcelite does not.

In a 2023 interview with Pracownia VZORY, a Polish design studio, Marzec said he started from three family sets made in Chodzież and later sold his earlier collection of Western European porcelain to focus on this one factory. He also founded an online collectors’ group, “Urok Chodzieskiej Porcelany” (the charm of Chodzież porcelain), which then had almost 12,000 members.

Tickets and time

There is no separate exhibition ticket, but the manor house costs extra. The Garden’s 2026 price list: Garden plus Manor House 18 PLN standard and 15 PLN reduced; Garden only 16 PLN and 11 PLN; family ticket with the manor 50 PLN. Children under five go free. Season-pass and UMCS alumni-card holders pay 5 PLN for the manor. Buy at the ticket office on ul. Willowa or online ; the price list has no free-admission day.

One inconsistency in the sources. The Garden’s May announcement of the opening says entry to the exhibition is free with a Garden ticket. The price list and the opening-hours page, however, say the manor house is charged separately. Budget for the combined ticket and ask at the desk.

Mind the manor’s hours, not the Garden’s. Tuesday to Friday the manor is open only 10:00-14:00. On Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays it is open 10:00-17:00 in September and 10:00-16:00 in October. The last day, 30 October, is a Friday, so the manor closes at 14:00 that day; the last longer day is Monday 26 October.

Allow 20-30 minutes for the show itself (our estimate; the Garden gives no visiting time). Paintings by Inka Zamoyska are on show in the same manor house until 10 October, so one visit covers both.

English on site: the Garden’s pages about the show are in Polish only and say nothing about English labels, audio guides or tours. Plan on looking rather than reading.

Who it is for: collectors and lovers of old Polish tableware, florists, and anyone visiting the Garden anyway. Who can skip it: visitors after a large museum show on a broad theme; this is a private collection of one factory’s wares in the rooms of a manor house. The Garden publishes nothing on accessibility, so if you use a wheelchair, call the Garden office on +48 81 742 67 01 (Monday to Friday, 7:00-15:00) before you go.

What the press says

No English-language coverage was found, and nobody has reviewed the show, as of 23 September 2026. There are two news items in Polish, neither critical:

• Lublin112 (16 July 2026, newsroom): a round-up of the Garden’s exhibitions that lists the porcelain as one of two indoor shows in the manor house, open to the end of the season, and summarises the organisers’ description - link .
• Radio Lublin (22 July 2026, Monika Malec): a radio documentary, “Kolekcjoner porcelany” (The porcelain collector), on how a florist became a collector and why he chose Chodzież, pointing listeners to the show in the manor house - link .

See also

• Kościuszko Manor House - the venue: the rebuilt manor of Tadeusz Kościuszko’s family, with a lime avenue and the Kościuszko earthworks in the same garden.
• Journey Through Life - paintings by Inka Zamoyska in the same manor house, open until 10 October 2026.
• Nature as Inspiration, Place and Material - outdoor sculpture by Maria Polakowska-Prokopiak in the Garden, if you want to stay on for a longer walk after the porcelain.
• Reminiscences - outdoor sculpture by Piotr Zieleniak, on show until the end of the Garden’s season.

Opening hours are on the Garden’s opening-hours page , prices on its price list (both in Polish only), and the exhibition text on the exhibition page .

Museum profile: Kościuszko Manor House .