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."

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 starting March 3, 2011 or order online at canadapost.ca/shop.

The stamps are pressure sensitive and printed on Tullis Russell paper using lithography in five colours. They are general tagged on four sides.