Vintage Unused Dahlia Flower Stamp (The Seasonal Garden), USPS Postage 32c

Product Description

• Minimum Quantity: 10 (buy more and save)
• Vintage Unused/Uncanceled U.S. Postage Stamp
• Dahlia, Flower, The Seasonal Garden, Red/Pink/Yellow/Orange/Green, Multicolored
• Topic: Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Seasons, Fall, Fall Garden Flowers
• Size: 1¾ x 1 inches (approx.)
• Condition: mint, unused/uncanceled
• Adhesive Type: gummed
• Face Value: 32 cents each (USD)

Flower Information

The dahlia has a rich history, originating in Mexico and Guatemala and eventually becoming the national flower of Mexico. The Aztecs cultivated and ate the dahlia tubers as food, and used the plant to treat epilepsy. They also used the dahlia's hollow stems as water pipes. Spanish conquistadors discovered the dahlia in the 16th century. The first official recordings of the dahlia were made by Spanish botanists in 1615. The flower was named "Dahlia" in 1791 by botanist Antonio José Cavanilles, after Anders Dahl, a Swedish botanist and student of Carl Linnaeus. The dahlia was introduced to Europe in 1789, and reached Great Britain in 1798. It became a favorite flower of Queen Victoria's court, and gained symbolic meaning associated with commitment and elegance. Before the discovery of insulin, diabetics used a substance called "Atlantic starch" extracted from dahlia tubers. Mexico declared the dahlia its national flower in 1963. It's also the official flower of Seattle and San Francisco. 

Dahlias can vary in size, with dwarf varieties suitable for flower beds, and giant varieties that can grow over 6 meters tall. The flower heads can reach 35 centimeters in diameter. While there are no true blue or black dahlia varieties, there are many near-blue and dark red and purple varieties.

Stamp History

Illustrated for the United States Postal Service (USPS) by Ned Seidler, this stamp is part of the The Seasonal Garden series. In 1992, the USPS issued a pane of 50 stamps, each depicting a different American wildflower. This series proved to be so popular that the USPS followed up with a colorful stamp booklet for each season honoring American garden flowers. Starting with the spring issue, the booklets were produced from 1993 to 1996. The artwork for each of these beautiful garden scenes depicts five seasonal flowers clustered together in bouquet format.

"Dahlia" is one of five stamps in the  Fall Garden Flowers series that was released on May 15, 1993. The selected fall blooms were the aster, chrysanthemum, dahlia, hydrangea, and the rudbeckia. Including hydrangea as a fall flowering plant illustrates the difficulty of seasonal categories, since this flower is sometimes regarded as a late spring or summer bloom. Unlike the other seasonal issues, here the artist allowed for space between the individual flowers.

Stamp History Courtesy of Smithsonian National Postal Museum