# 2760-64 - 1993 29c Garden Flowers

U.S. #2760-64

1993 29¢ Garden Flowers
Booklet Stamps

·      The first in a series of booklets featuring garden flowers

Stamp Category:  Commemorative

Set:  Garden Flowers

Value:  29¢

First Day of Issue:  May 15, 1993

First Day City:  Spokane, Washington

Quantity Issued:  199,784,000

Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Printing Method:  Lithographed, engraved

Format:  Booklet panes of 5 stamps each

Perforations:  10.9

Color:  Multicolor with black intaglio

Why the stamps were issued:  Part of the push behind these stamps had come from the sale of stamps in supermarkets and other retailers.  People had reported that they wanted “bright, pretty American stamps,” so the USPS thought that flower booklets might please the public.  They ran TV commercials and full-page advertisements in stamp publications announcing “The flowers are in bloom at your post office.  Buy them while they last!” and “Pick up a bunch.”  

About the stamp designs:  Engraved by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Richard Everett, the stamps featured artwork by Ned Seidler.  Seidler had previously designed the 1984 block of four Orchids stamps (US #2076-79).  The Garden Flowers stamps depicted a bouquet spread across five stamps, with multiple blooms of each flower contained to each stamp.  Using photographs and flower books as his inspiration, Seidler produced his paintings through a combination of watercolor and gouache, a type of thicker watercolor. 

Special design details:  The Garden Flowers booklets have been found with two different errors ­– missing the black intaglio printing (denomination, USA, and flower name) and imperforate. 

About the printing process:  The Garden Flowers booklet was the first to be produced on the new Goebel booklet machine, which was the first to print multicolor covers.

First Day City:  The stamps were issued in Spokane, Washington at the 55^th annual Spokane Lilac Festival and International Lilac Society Convention. 

About the Garden Flower Series:  This series was borne out of the 1992 Wildflowers issue.  Initially, that project had begun when the USPS asked an artist to produce color sketches of a group of garden flowers.  Instead, the artist gave the USPS illustrations of wildflowers.  The USPS liked them so much, they decided to create a 50-stamp pane, showing wildflowers that can be found in each state.  The USPS still liked the garden flowers idea and felt it would also meet consumer demand.  Though they didn’t announce it at the time, these stamps were to be the first in a new series of seasonal flower booklets.  Over the next three years, the USPS issued booklets of stamps showing flowers that bloom in summer, fall, and winter.

History the stamps represent:  Garden flowers are simply cultivated wild flowers that are bred scientifically to have more colorful and attractive blossoms.  Originally all flowers were wild and prehistoric people found them growing from the cold wastelands of the Arctic to the steamy jungles of the tropics.  Eventually they learned to grow plants and began to raise the prettiest and sweetest smelling flowers in gardens.

Garden flowers can be divided into three main groups: annuals, biennials, and perennials.  Annuals are plants that sprout, grow to full size, bloom, produce seeds, and die within one year.  Biennials sprout and begin growing within the first year.  During the second year they bloom, produce seeds, and then die.  Perennials live at least three years.  Although they may or may not bloom their first year, once they do bloom many continue to do so indefinitely.  The majority of garden flowers are annuals and perennials.