Canada Post grows two new stamps!

Canada Post is about to add another flower to its bouquet of floral stamps. This year’s pair of PERMANENT™ stamps, features two colorful Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus); ‘Sunbright’ and ‘Prado Red.’ In a first for Canada Post, the flowers featured were grown specifically for the purpose of being the stars of this stamp series.

Canada Post’s Stamp Services team picked out several sunflower varieties that would appear most attractive on stamps, and then met with horticultural experts at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa. After choosing cultivars suitable for local growing conditions, the Central Experimental Farm experts planted and tended the sunflowers from seed to seedling and on to mature flowering beauty. Growing stamp imagery was a new experience for Stamp Design Manager Danielle Trottier. “We had the opportunity to watch the flowers grow—and watch local visitors to the field appreciate them.”

While the weather outside is still a bit chilly to be thinking of sunflowers, these plants have year round appeal and use. “Sunflowers have something to offer in every season, says Charlie Dobbin, Horticulture Director for Canada Blooms. In winter they’re an excellent food source for overwintering songbirds. But, if your bird feeder hangs over your garden beds, be sure to rake up the hulls in spring, as sunflower shells contain a substance that will suppress the growth of other plants. Once the grounds warms up plant some sunflower seeds in a sunny location and then watch them take off and head for the sky. In the fall you get these huge flowers on top of gigantic plants.”

The full line of sunflower stamps, including booklets of 10 stamps, souvenir sheets of two stamps, a matching notecard and stamp set, coils of 50 stamps (perfect for wedding invitations and other celebrations), a stamp dispenser, and postage paid postcards will be available at Canada Post retail outlets.


About the stamps

The stamps measure 26 mm x 32 mm (vertical) and have simulated perforations. Lowe-Martin will print the stamps, which are available in booklets of 10 stamps, on souvenir sheets of two stamps, and in a coil of 50 stamps. The stamps are pressure sensitive and printed on Tullis Russell paper using lithography in five colours. They are general tagged on four sides. The official first day cover will be cancelled in Ottawa, Ontario. Additional information about Canadian stamps can be found in the News section of Canada Post’s website, and photos of these new stamps are also available.