Royal Mail: Stamps featuring flower collection with King Charles’ silhouette revealed, how to pre-order

The Royal Mail has unveiled a set of 10 stamps featuring the silhouette of King Charles to celebrate the nation’s favourite flowers. The King’s uncrowned profile - known to be a devoted gardener and environmentalist - is painted in silver and faces the top right corner as the collection debuts for sale from today (March 14).

One of the flowers chosen for the collection is the sweet pea, a favourite of the late Queen. Another celebrates the sunflower, which is the national flower of Ukraine. Other garden favourites include rose, dahlia, nasturtium, lily, and fuchsia.

The collection replaces a design featuring the Queen’s head that has been continuously used on commemorative stamps since 1968. A new set of stamps featuring the Queen’s head was issued for the last time last month.

According to the BBC, those new stamps will not begin to appear regularly on letters until stocks run out of existing stamps showing the late Queen’s head. It is not expected that the new King Charles versions of ordinary first and class stamps will start to be seen until next month. That means that the first visible change in stamps for the new reign will be these 10 flower stamps.

David Gold, Royal Mail’s director of external affairs and policy, said: "Britain is a nation of gardeners, and a love of flowers runs deep in our collective consciousness. His Majesty is known to be a passionate gardener and we are delighted that the first special stamps to feature his silhouette should be a celebration of some of the most popular flowers in British gardens."

The silhouette of the King was created in collaboration with illustrator Andrew Davidson, best known for his illustrations of Ted Hughes’ children’s book The Iron Man, Marcus James, the Royal Mail’s head of design and editorial, and Ian Chilvers of design agency Atelier Works.

Full list of garden flower collection stamps

1. Purple iris
2. Pink lily
3. Fuchsia 
4. Orange-red tulip
5. Dark pink peony
6. Bright orange nasturtium
7. Pale pink rose
8. Light purple-tinted dahlia
9. Light pink sweetpea
10. Sunflower

How to pre-order Royal Mail flower collection stamps

These flower stamps can be pre-ordered from Tuesday (March 14), before they go on general release on March 23. The First Class flowers stamp set is priced at £9.50. A fold-out souvenir with the stamp collection is also available for pre-order and is priced at £10.40.

People can also get their hands on a unique time-limited time stamp souvenir, which they can personalise with the name and address of their choice that costs £12.05. For more information about the latest collection can be found on the Royal Mail website.