Canada Post welcomes spring with a showy newcomer to its familiar flower series.

By midsummer, one needn’t look far to find thriving hydrangeas. Requiring little more than regular watering and a bit of shade – and crowned with glorious, billowy heads of tiny flowers – they are a perennial favourite among gardeners.

Another reason for their popularity lies in their remarkable ability to achieve a particular colour based on soil conditions. For example, one of the stamps features the cultivar 'Endless Summer', a Hydrangea macrophylla which is Greek for bigleaf hydrangea. Growers can achieve pink, blue or lavender flowers, depending on how acidic or alkaline the soil is and how much aluminum it contains.

The Hydrangea arborescens, or smooth hydrangea – a species native to the eastern United States – is represented by the bulbous, snow-white blossoms of the cultivar 'Annabelle'.

Designed by Benny Corrigan, art directed by Karen Satok and David Sacha of Sputnik Design Partners Inc., and illustrated by Marie-Élaine Cusson, these stamps were inspired by rich and opulent traditional botanical drawings, which are known for their high-contrast tones, sumptuous colours and minute attention to detail.

Satok explains, “Because the stamps themselves are botanical drawings, we wanted the complete hydrangea program to contain some interesting contrasts that went beyond the expected. For example, the Official First Day Cover, which is cancelled in Sunny Corner N.B., is a departure from the usual close-up of the flowers. Here, we used a pattern that is reminiscent of traditional 1940s wallpaper. This treatment, combined with the black and white line drawings, creates a contemporary tone and feel.”