Turf Green
Retired1969-1972
Similar to the color of a fresh cut lawn, meet Turf Green. One of the final colors to be introduced before production stopped on Fiesta in 1972, it was only produced for three years by The Fiesta Tableware Company. Turf Green is a rich and saturated shade of green that is often used in sports fields, golf courses, and other landscapes where a lush, green appearance is desired.
Production
Turf Green was retired in 1972, so it is a hunt for secondhand pieces now. Fiesta Factory Direct is where the colors still being made are, if you are filling a set.
Shop Fiesta Factory Direct (opens in a new tab)Notes on Turf Green
Turf Green arrived in 1969 with Antique Gold, the last two colors of the original run, and like its partner it only had three years before Fiesta was retired in 1973 - which makes it one of the scarcer vintage colors simply because so little of it was made. The name is accurate: it's a muted, slightly olive green, noticeably more muted than the Medium Green it followed. It reads as very much of its moment, and it's the color that most obviously places a vintage table at the tail end of the original line rather than its middle. Nothing Fiesta makes today is especially close to it.
Using Turf Green on a table
Turf Green has enough color to be noticed without taking over, which makes it a good second or third piece - a salad plate or a serving bowl rather than the whole setting. Its mid lightness (L* 53) means most food reads against it without either washing out or vanishing. It nearly disappears against a white cloth (4.0:1), so it shows best on dark wood or a colored runner.
Below, 5 combinations built only from colors Fiesta has actually produced. Each says which rule it follows, and which pieces you can still buy today.
Buy these to go with it
Turf Green was retired in 1972, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Lavender sits roughly opposite Turf Green in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
All green
Every color here is from the green family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
- Sea Mist Green
- Lemongrass
-
Your color Turf Green
- Evergreen
Three-way split
Turquoise and Mulberry sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Turf Green in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
- White
- Turquoise, 1937-1969
-
Your color Turf Green
- Mulberry
Next-door hues
These sit within about 55° of Turf Green on the color wheel. Neighboring hues blend instead of competing, which suits a table you want to feel warm rather than sharp.
Where Turf Green sits in the line
Turf Green took over from Medium Green as Fiesta's green, and is noticeably more muted than it - a clearly different glaze rather than a reformulation (ΔE 15.8). It lasted 3 years where the median for its era is 9, which is why it turns up so rarely. In 1969 it arrived alongside Antique Gold and took the place of Yellow, 1936-1969, Turquoise, 1937-1969 and Medium Green on the shelf. What else happened in 1969 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Turf Green. Under about ΔE 5 two colors are hard to tell apart side by side - useful when you are identifying an unmarked piece.
On the table alongside Turf Green
5 colors were in production at the same time: