Feb. 25, 2014 — The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the blooms that
brighten the gray days of winter by issuing the Winter Flowers Forever
stamps.
Feb. 25, 2014, Little Rock, AK — The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the blooms that brighten the gray days of winter by issuing the Winter Flowers Forever stamps.
Available in booklets of 20, the Forever stamps were issued during the American Philatelic Society AmeriStamp Expo 2014 at the Statehouse Convention Centre in Little Rock.
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| Pictured clockwise from upper left are the four featured plants – amaryllis, cyclamen, Christmas cactus and paperwhite. |
Art director Ethel Kessler, of Bethesda, MD, chose four winter-blooming flowers with colours that worked together as a group yet stood out individually.
Potted plants served as stamp artist William Low’s models. To keep the images fresh, he photographed the flowers at their peak, capturing details in close-ups that accentuate the plants’ foliage and blossoms.
• A native of South America, the amaryllis produces two-to-three-foot stalks topped by large single or double trumpet-shaped flowers in colours that include red, salmon, orange, pink, rose and white.
• Florist’s cyclamen has gained popularity in the U.S. as a winter-blooming potted plant. Produced on long, leafless stems, the sweetly scented flowers have five petals, four up and one down, that are held upright above the foliage.
• A favorite tradition at the holidays, the Christmas cactus is easy to grow indoors. The plant, which is naturally winter-blooming, has flattened stems that bloom with flowers in yellow, salmon, pink, fuchsia and white or sometimes in combinations of those colors.
• The paperwhite is the most fragrant type of daffodil. Like the amaryllis, the paperwhite can be induced to bloom indoors where its sweet floral scent will completely fill a room.
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