AUSTRALIA – Cover from Sidney, Australia to Braga, Portugal.

First Day Cover of the 2011 Australian’s stamps issue ‘Floral Festivals’ posted on March, 8 2011.

(Special thanks to my friend Juris Tarvids)

A glance over many a garden fence will reveal Australians’ great love of gardening and blooms. This is underscored by the popularity of floral festivals, which have become a feature of many cities and regional towns. Because flowers are also a strong stamp thematic, this issue has been developed to recognize both the popularity of flowers and the value of  floral festivals. Each stamp represents a specific festival.

Gerbera

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show takes place at the historic Carlton Gardens and Royal Exhibition Building each autumn. Known as much for the landscape architecture displays as for the blooms, this popular event is symbolized by the gerbera, a native of South Africa.

Jacaranda

The Jacaranda Festival has been held annually in Grafton since 1935, making it Australia’s longest-running floral festival. Many

of Grafton’s streets are fringed with plantings of Jacaranda mimosifolia established from the 1930s, thus making the tree the obvious botanical emblem for the town’s floral festival.

Australian Everlasting

Perth’s first wildflower festival was held in Kings Park in the 1960s, and became known as Kings Park Festival in 2007.

The month-long festival showcases the wildflowers of the state, which is home to several thousand species of this botanical gem. The stamp design shows the Australian everlasting.

Violet

Queensland’s Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers was inaugurated in 1949 as a spur to economic activity following World War II. Providing enjoyment to locals and visitors ever since, the Toowoomba Carnival has selected the popularly cultivated violet

(species Violet odorata) to represent it.

Tulip

Since its inception in 1988, Canberra’s Floriade has used the tulip as its signature bloom. To create a flower-lover’s paradise, more than one million bulbs and annuals – including some 80odd varieties of colorful tulip – are planted so that they bloom in time for

the spring festival.

Technical Details

Date of Issue: 8 March 2012

Values: 5 stamps of 60c (se-tenant)

Subject: Floral Festivals

Designer: Adam Crapp and Australia Post Design Studio

Printer: McKellar Renown

Process: Lithography

Size: 26mm x 37.5mm

Perforation: 13.86 x 14.6

Paper: Tullis Russell (B100 and B90 s/a)Watermark:

Sheet: Modules of 50 (2 x 25) with design

Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II - 1980

Australian Birds

Joint issue with USA