Detail

`The Garden Balsam has been chosen as the plant for the July plant stamp series. This flower which spends the hot summer time residing calmly beside the fence can be compaired with an innocent country virgin, especially since, from old times, various flowers have been likened to women. The flower, not gorgeous but pretty, has been used for a material for coloring in red the finger-nails of girl and children of our country and was the precursor of manicure. The Garden Balsam attracts much of our attention because its common place is not in a flower-garden but at the foot of a wall and not in a greenhouse but at the side of the bush-clover fence of a rustic cottage. Having a lovely tingling figure and preserving our beautiful customs, this flower always gives us an intimate feeling. It belongs to the Balsaminaceae family which is an annual plant and it grows upright without branches to the hight of about 60 cm. It has long oval jagged leaves facing each other with sharp pointed edges. During July and August they bloom hanging down in red, white, violet and pink, and the pyramidal fruits, covered with short hairy shorns, break in five pieces and the yellowish brown seeds flip out when they ripen. They grow everywhere in our country and everywhere in the world, where they are planted as a ornamental gardening plant.`