Geraniums and Pelargoniums on World Stamps

Long, long ago, when the world was young … I used to collect stamps just like any other kid on the block.

I enjoyed it for a number of years and collected all kinds of stamps: birds, flowers, animals … square, triangular … used or unused … local or foreigner.   I’ve learned a lot from stamp collecting ... I’ve traveled couple of times around the World, pinpointed mysterious countries, and discovered many flowers and animals. And of course I met famous people … hmmm, they don’t remember me, but I do.

Stamp collecting or philately it is one of the world's most popular hobbies, or used to be … now you can even design and create your own stamp. Yes, a real stamp with gum, perforation and everything else.  What I would like to show you today, is how Geraniums and Pelargoniums are represented on World stamps.

Here’s what I found:

1950 Magyar Posta - Muskatli, Pelargonium Zonale

1956 National Wildlife Federation Wild Geranium

1959 Republique Populaire du Benin - Geranium

1963 Helvetia, Pelargonien Briefmarke

1963 National Wildlife Federation Wild Geranium

1964 Posta Romana - Muscata, Pelargonie

1966 Republique Togolaise - Pelargonium Zonale

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
Grandiflorum, Muscata

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
Peltatum, Muscata

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
Peltatum, Muscata

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
Zonale, Muscata

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
Zonale, Muscata

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
zonale, Muscata

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
Grandiflorum, Muscata

1968 Posta Romana - Pelargonium 
zonale, Muscata

1969 Mongolia - Geranium Pratense,  天竺葵

1969 Pelargonium Denticulatum /  شمعدانی/ Republique Tunisienne

1974 Pelargonium Inquinans, Republique of South Africa

1975 Pelargonie, Pelargonium Zonale, PAC-Mini-Pel, 
Deutsche Demokratische Republik Briefmarke

1977 Pelargonium zonale l'herit, Cuba

1977 Pelargonium zonale, Jugoslavija

1979 Pelargonium, Monaco

1981 Pelargonium zonale, Suomi Finland

1981 Pelargonium Reuniforme, Medicinal Plant 
Republic of Transkei

1986 Pelargonium Grandiflorum,  Laos

1994 Pelargonium cortusifolium, Namibia

1995 Geranium Pratense - Russia - Пеларгония

1997 Pelargonium grandiflorum - Yugoslavija

 2000 Geranium, Pelargonium x hortorum, Antigua and Barbados

2000 Pélargonium, Ooievaarsbek,  Belgique,

2000 Tree Pelargonium Cucullatum, South Africa

2000 Tree Pelargonium Cucullatum, Malva, South Africa

2009 Geranio, Espana - Geranium

2011 Geranium sylvaticum, Foroyar, Faroe Island

Hope you enjoyed our small journey alongside those international stamps that enlighten the beauty of  the geranium blossoms. 

Pink Scented Table Centerpiece

To offer flowers with beautiful blossoms is a perfect choice for expressing feelings. Every time when I make an arrangement I am thinking about what plants are suitable to combine, keeping in mind what is the shape/texture/color/smell of the flowers and leaves; and why not, what is the meaning of the flowers used.  If you want to show enchantment and joy you may use lavender flowers, orange for enthusiasm, white for purity and happiness, red for love, courage and respect.

If you want to express gratitude and appreciation to your guests, use joyful pink flowers, eventually with dark green succulents and accent plants, when make a table centerpiece and I'm sure they will receive your message.

Can you guess what express most of my arrangements ?  Of course... they communicate happiness, joy of life, and gratitude because most of the scented-leaf pelargoniums make lavender,  pink or white flowers ;-)
 



I was looking long time for a round ceramic pot to make a pink scented table centerpiece. Few weeks ago, finally, I found one. I made a hole for good drainage and I potted inside pink mini-roses and one pelargonium Xfragrans "Pink Nutmeg" with rounded, fan shaped leaves emanating nutmeg-chocolate aroma.

Mini-roses speak silently to any person in a language known by their heart. Not only once I used colorful mini-roses in my mini-gardens. They are woody perennials profuse in their blooming and were bred to stay small in size, so they work well as edges or as main attraction in bonsai pots.



They resist for long time even in fancy small pots, given for long periods of time an exuberant growth of flowers.

Just trim back dead flowers and some new growth to maintain their shape and encourage start of new flowers. I like them even more because they are not grafted and even the suckers from the root stock are prolific bloomers.

Similar with other garden roses from Rosaceae family, they are really hardy and love to be kept outdoors, eventually in full sun, but may survive also indoor for long time if are well cared and watered frequently.

  
" Take time to smell the roses." - proverb

Peacock is fanning out its tail

"Peacock" pelargonium / geranium decorates my garden like a peacock with bright shining tail fanning out behind him. It is a source of great delight to see the finely cut leaves with eye-like light green, creamy pink and white spots shimmering somehow yellow in the sky. Thrills of joy fill my heart when I'm rubbing the leaves between fingers, filling the air with an unique and complex fragrance where the powerful scent of rose is overlapped by the fragrances of spice, lemon and mint.

 Peacock pelargonium/ geranium

I fell in love when I saw it last year standing in Vandusen Fragrance Garden. " Peacock Geranium" has a vigorous growing habit, making very large specimens suitable to produce many "useful, scented, edible" leaves. I love to use their fresh leaves and small pink flowers as decorative garnish. Also I steep them (fresly harvested or dried) like the main flavoring ingredient in my herbal tea blends or in my jellies.


The calming effect of them (similar with chamomile) seems to be very important to reduce the inherent stress and anxiety induced by the noisy, crowdy city.

Rose Peacock pelargonium flower

When peacocks feel happy, they begin to dance, opening their feathers like a veil of mistery splotched with orange, green, blue, gold or grayish colors. "Rose Peacock" is a beautiful and unique plant to love or look at it, with silvery leaves glimmering in the sun light when lapping each other like waves. Just like a dancing peacock fans his tail, my plant was trained to shows off it’s beautiful emerald green with golden raindrops umbrella.

Peacock pelargonium  decorative and scented leaves

This variety of rose scented pelargoniums is an extremely hardy and drought tolerant plant which grown easily in the summer sunshine. I have chosen  a colorful ceramic pot, being inspired by the colors of the peacock's feathers  and these days I should enlighten my room with its beauty to protect it by the lower autumn temperatures.

Peacock pelargonium fanning out its tail

John Ruskin  had right to say " Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies, for example." ... but can you blame me for being a fan of this peacock?

Cats and Roses

Cats and mini-roses

"You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats" - proverb

Alpine Bush Mint Bonsai

Alpine Mint / Prostanthera Cuneata Bonsai

I'm making my garden a peaceful scented place of gatherings, where I can feel the connection with the beauty and mystery of living plants.  Upon entering my garden and once the journey in starts, the external senses: seeing, smelling, tasting and touching are delighted by the fragrances that sweep away to the evergreen showy leaves and flowers of the plants.



I remembered those days, Thomas D. Church's words which inspired me long time ago: "The only limit to your garden is the boundaries of your imagination".

Prostanthera Cuneata / Alpine Bush Mint foliage

My garden is an atypical world passing through my fingers, with bonsai, saikei and  mini-gardens surrounded by accent plants, moss, and rocks, in a constant changing, moving and growing.  How wonderful to always walk through a scented garden full of surprises ;-).




I watch the leaves and blossoms tossing their sweet perfume, a wonderful ozony blend of lemon, rose, apple, nutmeg, cinnamon, mint and eucalyptus when soft breezes blow through. The last notes are released by my little "Alpine Bush Mint" bonsai, or "Prostanthera Cuneata" bonsai, member of the "Lamiaceae" family.

Alpine Mint / Prostanthera Cuneata foliage

I have had this guy in my garden for few years. It is an attractive shrub originating in Australia's mountains, with a dense and rounded habit, suitable as a bonsai or in rockery landscape. This one has just 20 cm high ... being a little higher above the succulents and the lush grass ;-) 

Alpine Bush Mint Bonsai /  Prostanthera Cuneata Bonsai

It is a very tolerant evergreen plant, frost hardy, easy to care, with woody stem and tiny dark green leaves. You can maintain its shape so easy, once you finished its design, because is a slow-growing plant which respond well to pruning.  The foliage has a strong minty-eucalyptus aroma when crushed, as the name suggests, and can be used to flavor jellies or seafood dishes. It blooms with white flowers with colored spots in summer, very attractive for bees and butterflies.

I have gotten to really love this mint-scented dwarf bonsai!  

Candy Dancer, a Delightful Houseplant

"Candy Dancer" is one of the scented pelargoniums which fills with joy my house and delights my sense of smell with a powerful lemon-rose scent.

Its fern like leaves seems to dance in the wind due to their very indented, wavy margins. It is originating in South Africa and our plants were started from seeds bought from Cape Town two years ago.

With my previous articles, I told you about other lemon-rose scented pelargoniums like Atomic Snowflake, or Rober's Lemon Rose,  all of them having vigorous growing habit - which make them very decorative houseplants  and good background plants in the gardens over the summer.  

Like the most scented pelargoniums, Candy Dancer, is not frost hardy plant and we keep them inside during the cold months. When outside, the sun warms gently their leaves each summer-days, and makes their hairy surface to glow.

Bloom intermittently but their very small five-petaled pink flowers are hidden under the leaves. It has a very compact growing habit, with upright stems (perfect to be trained in form of columns) and a great density of leaves. We love its aroma in cookies and jellies and some plants are left untrimmed  to produce as many leaves as possible.

Others were shaped and potted in bonsai pots ...  and believe me, it cheers our spirit every time when touching leaves, wiring branches or trimming outer shoots or leaves.





We enjoyed letting the kids play with their dalmatian figures and choosing a spot for one of them in the mini-forest arrangement.

Don't you think it looks cute?