On Valentine’s Day, Canada Post released two new permanent rate stamps featuring white cape jasmine gardenias in its Spring Flowers series. The stamps are being issued in three formats, keeping wedding invitations in mind. The series was introduced in 2002 and includes stamps depicting native as well as non-native flowers of Canada.

The cape jasmine gardenia is a famous exotic flower known for its sweet perfume. They are found mostly in southern China and Japan. The big evergreen shrub can grow 3 feet to 6 feet tall. It has thick, lance-shaped dark green leaves and the flowers are 3 inches long. The flowers bloom all year long and thrive where temperatures don’t go below 60 degrees. In cooler regions, they bloom in late spring to early summer. The flower has been a symbol of love since the Victorian era. Today, they represent purity and are gifted commonly during weddings.

Andrew Conlon and Lionel Gadoury of Context Creative designed the stamp. The artwork was created by a paper flower artist named Chantal Larocque, whose work was inspired by a photograph by Natasha V. The stamps were printed by Colour Innovations of Lowe-Martin using six-colour lithography. The self-adhesive stamps were produced in booklets of 10 and coils of 50. PVA gum was used in souvenir sheets of two. 10 envelope seals created according to the stamp designs are featured on the booklet.

800,000 booklets, 130,000 coils and 75,000 souvenir sheets have been issued. 7,000 service official first-day covers are available with both of the booklet stamps and a postmark from Flower’s Cove, Newfoundland.

Visit philamart to view and purchase variety of stamps from all over the world.

Image Courtesy: Canada Post