A Big Day for Orchid Lovers

I don’t know who likes the newest U.S. postage stamps more – my modern-day, orchid-growing self, or the little girl I used to be who loved stamp collecting.

The new collection of “Forever” stamps honors some of the nation’s wild orchids. They'll be available Friday, Feb. 21.

The U.S. Postal Service picked just the right person for the designs. He is photographer Jim Fowler, who describes himself as “unapologetically crazy about wild orchids.”

Based in South Carolina, Fowler has written two books about orchids that grow wild in the southeastern U.S.

His images on Flickr alone number more than 4,800, and I’d recommend that you take a look.

The postage stamps feature ten different photos, of nine orchid species. I'm familiar with only three on the list, so am looking forward to learning more about Hexalectris spicata, Cyrtopodium polyphyllum, and Calopogon tuberosusto name a few. (Don't let the names put you off. You don't have to know how to pronounce 'em to appreciate them!)

Friday's official "stamp dedication ceremony" is in Coral Gables, Fla., at the American Orchid Society Library of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Wish I could be there.

To console myself, I already pre-ordered my stamps online.