April Plant of the Month
Apricot petals with a delicious tinge of pink that radiate warmth and elegance. You can tell I like this tulip!
‘Apricot Beauty’ is a Triumph tulip. Known for their sturdy stems and long-lasting early blooms, they flower from March to April and are 40cm tall. I have lots of self-seeded blue Forget-me-not flowers in the border with the tulips and I’m enjoying the blue/apricot colour combination.
I warned the squirrels not to touch these bulbs back in November when I planted them and, by planting them pretty deep, non were dug up. Tulip bulbs are irresistible to squirrels and supposed to be distasteful once they start to shoot. However, there are a couple of squirrels in my garden that have taken to eating the flowers. I’ve tried using prickly berberis prunings like a stockade around the clumps of tulips and this has given them some protection, but the odd flower is still taken. Annoyingly, they never eat the whole head and often discard most of the flower as if they’re not sure about the taste.
Some tulips are better at returning the following year and I have yet to find out if ‘Apricot Beauty’ is one of them. My free draining soil suits these bulbs and white tulip ‘Purissima’ has been returning each spring for nearly twenty years in my front garden. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy ‘Apricot Beauty’ while I can…and keep my eye out for those pesky squirrels.
