Description:
The U.S. Postal Service has issued Garden Delights, four stamps celebrating the flora of America’s spring and summer gardens and the vital role of hummingbirds in their pollination. Each stamp showcases a female ruby-throated hummingbird hovering next to either a zinnia, cigar flower, spotted touch-me-not or sunflower. A dedication for the stamps was held today in Strongsville.
The bloom of spring flowers is a source of delight for gardeners and non-gardeners alike, particularly after the chill of a long winter. While gardens provide joy, sustenance, and a sense of purpose to those who tend them, they also give birds, plants and animals a refuge and the resources they need to survive.
No garden would be complete without the buzzes, hums and musical melodies of nature’s visiting wildlife. Hummingbirds, in particular, bring joy to summer gardens with their unusual features and petite size.
Hummingbirds are found only in the Americas, with about 16 different species native to the United States. Ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) are among the smallest — about the weight of a penny and 3.5 inches long. They are the only hummingbirds found in the gardens of the eastern and central parts of the United States.
Unique among birds, these tiny, aerodynamic marvels are remarkable pollinators. More than 7,000 flowering plants rely on hummingbirds to collect and deliver the pollen needed to produce fruit and seeds.