Roseville Pottery became famous in the 1930's for producing lines of pottery with several color themes to meet various decors. Early on, there were two color themes, later they standardized it to three themes per line. They were referred to by their background, or "base" color such as Brown, Blue, or Green as in the Pinecone line. Each piece was produced in each of the three colors. It has been suggested that the company expected homeowners to buy all three colors and rotate them throughout the seasons.

Beginning in 1940, the marketing department realized that providing interesting names for the color themes might increase sales. These names appeared in advertisements in various periodicals, giving us an archive of the names provided by Roseville for the color themes of their wares. There are 15 known floral lines assigned names, with the 1952 Raymor line receiving seven additional customized color names.