Canada Post showcases ranunculus blooms in Spring Flowers series

By David Hartwig

The latest stamps in Canada’s Spring Flowers series feature ranunculus flowers.

Canada Post will issue a se-tenant (side-by-side) pair of nondenominated permanent-rate (currently 92¢) Ranunculus stamps March 1 in a booklet of 10, coil of 50 and souvenir sheet of two.

The stamp designs show the blossoms of Ranunculus asiaticus, commonly known as the Persian buttercup. Canada Post said this is “one of the many varieties of ranunculus that are a favourite of florists and gardeners and a popular choice for wedding bouquets, centrepieces and containers.”

One of the two stamps in the se-tenant pair shows a single blooming flower, with a flower on the cusp of blooming extending from the frame of the design’s violet background. Multiple blooms extend from the frame of the design of the other stamp.

While blooms of the wild varieties of ranunculus tend to be yellow, cultivated varieties boast single or double blooms of orange, red, violet and various shades of pink.

Many species grow naturally near streams, lending credence to the name “Ranunculus,” which comes from the Latin words for “little frog.”

The Persian buttercup variety on the stamps, however, prefers to grow in sunny hillsides and pastures that mimic its native environment of southwestern Asia, southern Europe and northern Africa.

According to Canada Post, the plant may have arrived in Europe as early as the
Crusades, when Christians and Muslims fought a series of religious wars in the Holy Land beginning in the late 11th century, but the Persian buttercup was not widely cultivated in Europe until the 17th century.

Designed by Stephane Huot, the new stamps feature images by Veronique Meignaud.

Lowe-Martin printed the stamps and souvenir sheet by four-color lithography. The booklet stamps measure 26 millimeters by 32mm each, and the coil stamps are 20mm by 24mm. The stamps on the souvenir sheet have polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gum.

The quantities printed are 1,000,000 booklets of 10 (Canada Post ordering number 414217111), 140,000 coils of 50 (404217117 for the coil of 50, 404217119 for a strip of 10, and 404217118 for a strip of four), and 60,000 souvenir sheets of two (404217145).

Canada Post also created 7,000 first-day covers (414217131) bearing a se-tenant pair of stamps and a Goderich, Ontario, first-day cancel.

The Spring Flowers series started in 2005 in Canada with stamps showing daffodils (Scott 2091-2093).

The Ranunculus stamps, souvenir sheet and FDC are available online from Canada Post and by mail order from Canada Post Customer Service, Box 90022, 2701 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, ON K1V 1J8 Canada; or by telephone from the United States or Canada at 800-565-4362, and from other countries at 902-863-6550.

Connect with Linn’s Stamp News: 

    Sign up for our newsletter
    Like us on Facebook
    Follow us on Twitter