US #5558
2021 Pink Flowering Dogwood – Garden Beauty

• Pictures a pink flowering dogwood blossom
• Part of the 10-stamp Garden Beauty set

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Set:  Garden Beauty
Value:  55¢ First Class Mail Rate (Forever)
First Day of Issue:  February 23, 2021
First Day City:  Bloomfield, Indiana
Quantity Issued:  600,000,000
Printed by:  Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method:  Offset
Format:  Booklets of 20
Tagging:  Phosphor tagged paper, block tag

Why the stamp was issued:  To celebrate America’s love of flowers and gardens.

About the stamp design:  Pictures an image of a flowering dogwood taken by photographer Allen Rokach.

First Day City:  First Day of Issue Ceremony held in Bloomfield, Indiana.

About the Garden Beauty set:  Includes 10 different stamp designs picturing flowers from America’s gardens.  Two flowers (tulips and moth orchid) are pictured twice.

History the stamp represents:  The flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), is a beautiful tree native to eastern North America and northern Mexico.  It is a popular choice in landscaping due to its striking blooms that appear every spring.

Flowering dogwoods are fairly small trees, usually only 15-30 feet tall when fully grown.  Most trees live approximately 80 years, blooming annually in late April or early May.  Wild dogwoods usually have white flowers, while cultivated varieties are known in white, pink, or even red.  When the flowers wither, they are replaced by clusters of up to ten “drupes” (small red or yellow berries) that ripen in the fall.

When planting flowering dogwood trees in your garden, keep in mind that they prefer moist, acidic soil.  They should also be planted in an area with plenty of morning sun but afternoon shade.  They can be difficult plants to keep happy as they are quite sensitive to pests and disease.  Dead wood and leaves must be removed yearly to help prevent these from afflicting the tree.

In 1912, Japan gave America some cherry blossom trees as a show of friendship.  Three years later, the US responded in kind with flowering dogwoods.  Sadly, most of the original dogwood trees in Japan did not survive.  In 2012, the US sent 3,000 new saplings to Japan in honor of the first gift’s 100th anniversary.