Summer flowers

Summer flowers have very rich of color ( reds, blues, violets, oranges, yellows, pinks, purple and whites ) and beautiful. The beginning of summer starts out with perennial flowers that began to grow late in spring.Some popular perennials for early summer are Irises and Peonies.

As summer starts to really heat up, there are many flowers that cannot continue to grow in the hottest days of summer. Unfortunately there are not too many colorful plants that can last in the heat. Some good annuals to plant in the hot days of summer are Cosmos and zinnias.The important things are giving them the proper care in order to have surviving plants.

Devoted to the summer season,  Denmark Post issued the stamp set features the summer flower in a miniature sheet  composed of 4 stamps on  June 8, 2011,The issue stamp depicts summer flower like Poppies, Yellow Poppies, Cranesbills, and Astrantia major (Great Masterwort). 

 Poppies

Most species of poppies are attractive and are cultivated as ornamental plants. A few species have other uses, principally as sources of drugs and foods.

A poppy is one of a group of a flowering plants in the poppy family, many of which are grown in gardens for their colorful flowers. Poppies are sometimes used for symbolic reasons.Poppy flowers have 4 to 6 petals. The petals may be almost any color, and some have markings.

 
 
Cranesbill

The genus Geranium contains more than 420 plant species, which are also known as cranesbill or hardy geranium .Geranium is a genus of 422 species of flowering annual, biennial, and perennial plants that are commonly known as the cranesbills. It is found throughout the temperate regions of the world and the mountains of the tropics, but mostly in the eastern part of the Mediterranean region.

The flowers have 5 petals and are coloured white, pink, purple or blue, often with distinctive veining. Geraniums will grow in any soil as long as it is not waterlogged. Propagation is by semi-ripe cuttings in summer, by seed, or by division in autumn or spring.Cranesbills are eaten by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Brown-tail and Mouse Moth.

Great Masterwort

Astrantia major, or named Great Masterwort, is an herbaceous, perennial plant with a rhizome, belonging to the family Apiaceae.These plants native of Europe and Western Asia are widespread in southern Europe (Pyrenees, Carpathians and Balkans), but also in the Caucasus up to Anatolia.

Astrantia major reaches on average 60 centimeters of height. The stem is erect and glabrous, with little branches and few leaves. The flowering period extends from June through September.The petals are five, white (or slightly reddened), while the stamens are five and much longer.

They are common in mountain meadows and grasslands, in forests and clearings and close to the streams, usually on calcareous soils, at an altitude of 100–2,300 metres above sea level.

Astrantia major is an entomophilous plant, mainly pollinated by beetles, but also by other insects. This perennial plant reproduces itself also by means of buds present at the ground level.

 

Yellow Poppies

Papaver nudicaule or The Iceland Poppy  is a boreal flowering plant. Native to subpolar regions of northern Europe and North America.The wild species blooms in white or yellow, and are likely to be poisonous, containing (like all poppies) toxic alkaloids. Papaver nudicaule have been studied genetically, particularly with respect to flower colour (refer to The Garden Iceland Poppy. Journal of Genetics 44: 169-193.).The white flower colour is dominant with respect to yellow. Other colours, such as buff and orange, are recessive.

(Resources: Denmark Post Information and Wikipedia)