Tulip Garden Update: May 4, 2001 Today's Report Includes: Gardens in the News Tulipmania Strikes! Beautiful Leaves Contribute Form and Function- Challenge Question #19 Photos Document Second Graders' Experiments Compare Last Year and This Year News From the 69.9N Latitude- That's Way Up There! Investigators Unearth Bulbs- Challenge Question #20 Tulip Salad Garden Tulips Nipped in the Bloom: Discussion of Challenge Question #17 Year-End Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts! Gardens in the News Since our April 27 update, A whopping 50 gardens bloomed and 12 gardeners reported that their tulips had emerged! Tulips Blooming Tulips Emerged Excitement continues to sweep the continent with another batch of enthusiastic reports! Here are some of this week's highlights: Yes! They bloomed May 2nd, 2001. The children are very excited and have eagerly watching our tulips and other signs of spring. Second Graders at Tower School in Marblehead, ME Next year we will plant in partners, I don't think some of the first and second grader planted deeply enough. Again many of our blossoms were frozen in the snows last week. So luckily we do have one brave Red Emperor--the kids are thrilled. We also have one pink one and a grape hyacinth! Next year I will also buy more reliable stock! The program has been a joy. Even taking water bottles of water out to the garden has been lots of fun! St. Anne's Episcopal School in Denver, CO Our first four tulips have bloomed! They were closed when we got to school this morning but had opened by noon. The weather has been unseasonably cool and we haven't had much rain so the tulips seem smaller than usual. There are lots of buds on the rest of the plants and we are looking forward to a sea of red over the next few days! Third Graders at Storrington Public School in Battersea, ON The snow finally melted, and the tulips emerged several days later. We were about to give up! Fourth Graders at Bessie C. Rowell School in Franklin, NH Tulipmania Strikes! Although tulips originated in Turkestan, a country in western Asia now known as Kazakhstan, they were brought to Holland in the 16th century. So popular did these bulbs become in Holland that "tulipomania" developed early in the 17th century. Wealthy people began speculating in bulbs of new colors and unusual shapes and paying extravagant prices for them. For tulip gardeners today, it is easy to see how tulipmania excitement is catchy! The beautiful blue-green leaves and graceful form of the plants give way to the spectacularly large and colorful blossoms. Take a moment to enjoy this extraordinary harbinger of spring! Beautiful Leaves Contribute Form and Function Have you ever taken a stroll through the tulip garden after a rain? Chances are you would see the plants covered with droplets of rainwater. The water tends to roll off the leaves. Did you ever wonder why some plant leaves seem to shed water while others get evenly wet? Then put on your thinking caps, and pull out your research materials to answer this: Challenge Question #19: "Tulip leaves, like all leaves, have many cellular layers. What is the function of the bluish, outside layer of cells?" (hint: Experiment with one of your tulip leaves and see if you can separate the outside layers from the others.) (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Photos Document Second Graders' Experiments Controls (top) versus 10 " planting depth (bottom) Last to bloom in the shady site. Audrey Dempsey's Second Graders at Charlotte Dunning School, Framingham, MA took time last year to design some tulip experiments to compare them with their Journey North garden (the CONTROL). Students took data along the way and then were able to document some of the differences with photographs! Here are some of the neat things they learned: Tulips planted in the shade surprised them by emerging from the ground the same time as the ones planted in the sun. They were planted near the building in the courtyard- perhaps providing extra heat for those bulbs! The tulips planted upside down were slower than the control. They also noticed differences between tulips planted deeper than the seven inch control depth. After documenting the tulips on film, they displayed their dramatic springtime images coming to life right in their room! Thanks for sharing your work with all of us! Compare Last Year and This Year How do the tulip gardens from 2000 compare with 2001? A glance at the maps tells the story. Spring 2000 Spring 2001 Here's how to compare the two years: 1. Compare the 2000 and 2001 maps. What differences do you notice? 2. Give a verbal description of the Spring, 2001 gardens, such as: The spring, 2001 gardens appear to be (ahead/behind) of the Spring, 2000 gardens. For example, you can see this by describing how far north the gardens were emerging/blooming. (i.e." in 2000, the farthest north the gardens were emerging/blooming was______, while in 2001, tulips were emerging/blooming as far north as______) 3. Summarize your observations and draw conclusions. News From the 69.9N Latitude- That's Way Up There! Utsjoki school in May 2000. Out Journey North Original Tulip site in Utsjoki, Finland is still waiting for the snow to clear and expose their tulip garden to the sun's heat. And they do have SUN! This week we got an update from Annikki Lauerma and her class. Here is what Ms. Lauerma wrote: Dear Journey North, It has been unusually warm lately and the sun is shining at the moment. The temperature is 50 F (10 C). Half of our tulip bed is still covered by snow (about 4 inches) but the other edge closer to the school wall is open. In fact it looks like a black half moon! It might be possible for something to emerge before school is over in case the bulbs have survived the winter. Best regards, Annikki Lauerma While her students waited for their tulips to emerge, they practiced their English skills to send us greetings and share some phenology of their northern springtime! We thought you would enjoy some prose from the north! "The spring is coming. Birds are coming back here to the cold North. The River Utsjoki is melting. There is almost no night here. People are happy because the winter has finally ended." Erkki Nordberg "The spring is coming! The whole world is one big sun! I love these voices of spring. Birds are singing these songs of happiness and freedom. Smelting snow makes lovely sounds by dropping down from trees and bushes." Tea Virtanen Investigators Unearth Bulbs Move over Sherlock! Students at Richardton-Taylor Public School in Richardton, North Dakota began to question their tulip bulbs after noticing that other gardens in North Dakota were reporting emerging and blooming tulips. Tired of waiting, they took matters into their own hands and dug up their garden. What they found were soggy, moldy bulbs with no sign of growth. Attention plant doctors! What do you think? Challenge Question #20: "There are many factors that could lead to understanding why the Richardton bulbs were moldy and soggy. Bulbs are a special kind of plant that need special conditions to grow. List as many factors that you can to explain how why these bulbs rotted." (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Tulip Salad Garden Fourth Graders at William Seely School in Groton, CT sent a May Day report that their tulips had bloomed. But this was only the beginning of their story. On October 18, 2000, they planted two dozen Red Emperors. Read on to hear about their recent story: Hi, We reported May 1 that our tulips bloomed. We had 1/25 Red Emperor tulips bloom. The remainder along with 75 other tulips all became a tulip salad for deer. Road construction work is being done on the highway right near our school, both day and night. We think the animals who live in the small wooded area behind the school are confused and our garden in front of the school offered some tasty food. Only tulips were eaten. Daffodils, azalea and butterfly bushes plus a variety of small perennials were not touched. Thought it was important that our report be clarified. Rosemary Salvas' Fourth Graders Wasn't it sweet of them to feed the deer! Why do you think the deer were only interested in eating the tulips when there was a whole variety of food there? Tulips Nipped in the Bloom: Discussion of Challenge Question #17 "Why do you suppose Dutch farmers do this? Why remove the blooms!?" Dutch farmers remove the bloom from the plant because they are interested in growing bulbs, not flowers. They sell the bulbs to other gardeners. By taking the flower off, the leaves can make food just for the bulb. The bulb is then bigger and will make a larger, healthier flower. Year-End Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts! Please take a few minutes to share your suggestions and comments in our Year-End Evaluation Form below. The information you provide at the end of each year is the single most important tool used to guide our planning. Journey North Year End Evaluation Please share your thoughts How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message. 1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-tulip@learner.org 2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #19 (or #20). 3. In the body of the message, answer ONE of the questions above. The Next Tulip Garden Update Will be Posted on May 18, 2001. Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form