Think Spring! USPS Sows Antique Seed Packets, Reaps Fresh Flower Stamps

Chalk it up to the privileges and pressures of designing for eternity (“Forever” beats first-class any day) or the security that comes with a future of free Saturdays, but the United States Postal Service is on a roll when it comes to fetching stamps. The agency is following up its Armory Show centennial “Modern Art in America” stamps with a fresh take on flowers, a perpetual crowd-pleaser for philatelists and Johnnies-come-philately alike. Behold “Vintage Seed Packets,” a bouquet of ten self-adhesive blossoms sourced from antique seed packets (pictured at right, printed between 1910 to 1920) and cropped to highlight the detail of flowers from asters to zinnias.