The last few days have been exceptionally warm and finally winter is stepping away even in central Finland. A few days ago I spotted the first coltsfoot grewing up in the middle of snowy our yard trench, then the crocus started rising on our snowy yard lawn and yesterday people started placing flower pots on sunny places. It’s finally spring and time to show off some beautifull spring time flowers on stamps (as well as a nice flower stamp specialty I have found).

Coltsfoot

Tussilago farfara, commonly known as Coltsfoot, is a plant in the family Asteraceae and very likely the first flower of spring in Finland. The plant has been used historically to treat lung ailments such as asthma as well as various coughs by way of smoking. Crushed flowers supposedly cured skin conditions, and the plant has been consumed as a food product.

Crocus

Crocus, or in case of this stamp and our yard Giant “Dutch crocuses” (C. vernus). Crocus is a genus of perennial flowering plants, native to a large area from coastal and subalpine areas of central and southern Europe , North Africa and the Middle East, across Central Asia to western China.

The crocus grow from corms and are mainly hardy perennials, and are found in a wide range of habitats, including woodland, scrub and meadows. There are about eighty species of crocus (of which approximately 30 are cultivated). Their color varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek krokos, which means saffron or saffron yellow.

Garden pansy

The pansy or pansy violets are a large group of hybrid plants cultivated as garden flowers. Pansies are derived from Viola species Viola tricolor hybridized with other viola species. The name “pansy” also appears as part of the common name for other Viola species that are wildflowers in Europe.

This stamp was printed in sheets 5×2 self-adhesive sheets with perforation like  wavy cut (not real perforation).

Below is a copy with misplaced / shifted print colors leading to very striking results.  I received this one on my normal business mail (a large sized letter containing a quote request). Sadly I didn’t look the stamp more precisely before cutting it off.

This article is filed under Philatelic tidbits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.