Roses

Flowers are a popular theme with postal authorities, indeed I only received some on a Belarus postcard this week, but for Sunday Stamps I am journeying to China who have issued some lovely flowers stamps over the years. The pretty painting above is on the cover of a philatelic item of commemorative stamps celebrating the Chinese Rose issued in 1984.

The butterfly theme follows from the cover with their postage marks. I wonder how many varieties of roses there are in the world.?  There must be thousands.  The booklet calls it the "queen of flowers" and from its wild origins to its ornamental cousin this beautiful flower lives up to that name. I like reading the names of roses in garden centres, some are so imaginative.  These Chinese Roses have some evocative names - Shanghai Spring, Pujiang Rosy Dawn, Pearl, Black Whirlwind, Battlefield Yellow Flower, and the Blue Phoenix

Which are listed in the inside cover.

 Lets walk in a rose garden:

 

Roses by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) 

You love the roses - so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!

Viridians Postcards is the hostess of Sunday Stamps whose theme this week is flowers of any kind.