2023 Tulip Blossoms Forever First Class Postage Stamps

Each fal, milions of gardeners bury bulbs in the earth, eagerly anticipating the rewards that springtime will bring. Months laterthick green leaves poke through the soil, soon revealing their payload: tulip blossoms in spectacular variety from prim toostentatious. These stamps from the U.S. Postal Service feature closeup views of 10 different tulips in a rainbow of colors
A member of the lilv family (liliaceael, the tulip (genus Tulipa) originated as a wildflower in Central Asia. There, despite the dryrocky environment, these tulip ancestors were able to survive because they could draw nourishment from the bulb. Over time,traders carried them west along the Sik Route to Persia, where cultivation of them is thought to have begun in the 10th centun, Bythe 16th centuny, tulips were all the rage in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire (now lstanbul, Turkey). The name”tulip,” in fact, derives from a Turkish version of the Persian word for “turban,” an allusion to the flower’s shape.
After diplomats in Constantinople shipped bulbs home to western Europe, the Dutch developed effective ways to cultivate andmarket the flower. The tulip trade remains an important part of their nation’s economy 400 years later.Dutch immjarants brought tulip bulbs to America, perhaps as early as the 1600s, The flower has become a dazzling part of the
andscape here, and we now import more than one bilion bulbs per year. Tulips can be grown in most of the country, outside of theDeep South, and gardeners can choose among almost endless varieties.Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps with existing photographs by Denise lppolito.Tulip Blossoms wil be issued as Forever@ stamps in booklets of 20, as well as cols of 3,000 and 10,000. These Forever stampswill always be eaual to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.Made in the USA.