Friday, March 8, 2013

Garden flowers, Poland

well, today is what they call, Women's Day...or Mother's Day...well, both refer to women of course, but when I think about it it gets a bit confusing...at school they give you tasks to draw/paint/write something for your mum for Mother's Day..but then you also need to bring flowers or buy a present for your teacher as well, and you may have teachers which may not be mum's...but if you exempt them from that gift-thing, they will get offended...so you really don't know in the end what you are actually celebrating...and unlike in many other parts of the world, here we do not pay even 1% of the attention to Father's Day compared to the craze today...the bars and restaurants are cramped with women, we have travelling tours organized for Women's Day, women leave work early coz of the holiday, stores are crowded with men and children...but Im sure that MANY people even have no idea that something like Father's Day exist...but that's why on 8 March they all do something for Women's Day...some because they do want to, but some in order their girlfriend/fiancee/wife/mother not to get bothered...and I must say I really hate such things done just for the kicks, but oh well :)

anyways, I've realized that for quite some time I've been posting here on Sundays only, and that I should actually pay the right attention to this blog at all other times as well.
So here it comes as a nice occasion to show these beautiful garden flowers' stamps from Poland...and, I mean, they are appropriate for today's day :)







this beautiful set of 12 stamps was issued back in 1964, all representing different garden flowers (and Im happy to have the whole set though im not quite sure if these could be considered CTO or used)

the order of the stamps is as follows:

20gr - Cyclamen,persian violet (Cyclamen persicum) - has fragrant bluish to dark lavender flowers
30gr - Freesia (Freesia hybrida)- has fragrant funnel-shaped flowers. Some of these are grown as ornamental plants.
40gr - Rose (Rosa hybrida)
50gr - Fernleaf peony (Paeonia tenuifolia)- they can live really long and one hundred year old peonies are not uncommon!
60gr - Regal lily (Lilium regale)- another long-lived plant, a trumpet flowered lily, native to western Sichuan in China which was introduced to England in 1903 by Ernest Henry Wilson.
90gr - Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale) - it is native to the Caucasus, northeastern Turkey, and northern Iran and they throw up a mound of finely cut, hairy foliage in spring.
1,35zl - Tulip (Tulipa gesneriana) - probably one of my favourite flowers...they are just so delicate! And well, you dont have to relate them to the Netherlands only. It is said that like many tulips that came from the Ottoman Empire, it could have originated in Turkey and has now become naturalised to south-west Europe
1,50zl - Daffodil (Narcissus incomparabilis) - frequently linked to the Greek myth of Narcissus, who became so obsessed with his own reflection that as he knelt and gazed into a pool of water, he fell into the water and drowned. In some variations, he died of starvation and thirst. In both versions, the narcissus plant sprang from where he died.
1,55zl - Tuberous begonia (Begonia tuberhybrida)- frost-tender plants that thrive where they receive bright light but little or no direct sun. My mum plants some begonias in spring (among other flowers), when you see all the pots on our terrace, you get this beautiful colourful pattern of flowers :)
2,50zl - Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) - probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years
3,10zl - Iris (Iris barbata) - takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species.
5,60zl - Camellia (Camellia japonica) - one of the best known species of the genus Camellia. Sometimes called the Rose of winter, it is is the official state flower of Alabama.

Im anything but a flower expert, so for the information regarding the flowers on the stamps I had to rely mainly on what google said to be right :)

And Happy Women's Day to all the women who feel like today it is their day....though Im the kind who'd rather be surprised with a present, a sign of love and affection any day of the year, not only when it is somewhat imposed :)

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