Tulip Garden Update: February
Today's Report Includes:
- Patterns Prevail
- Gardeners Share Space with Critters
- More Reports
- This Just In...Hot Off the Information Super Highway
- New Bulbs vs. Old Bulbs: Challenge Question #13
- My Tulip Garden In...: Challenge Question #14
- Light and Life Under a Box
- What Does Blooming Mean to a Tulip?
- York, NE Mystery: Challenge Question #15
- Good Question from Woburn, Discussion of CQ’s #10, #11
Patterns Prevail
Even a quick look at the NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) weather map and it is very clear that temperatures in parts of the continent were as much as 9 degrees higher than average last week.
Study the Journey North tulip map this week. 42 new gardens were reported EMERGED. Read the data and compare the 2 maps, do you see a pattern?
|
|
 |
This weeks
tulip map click to enlarge |
Temperature
departures from Average- March 23-29, 2003 Courtesy NOAA Climate Prediction Center |
Gardeners Share Space with Critters
Squirrels, chickens and snakes are some of the critters gardeners are coming into contact with (sometimes too close of contact!) in reports this week.
Morse Street School, Freeport, ME 03/31/103
Eight of our eighteen tulips have emerged! Some of them got eaten by squirrels in the fall, so we are waiting to see how many actually come up.Nopper Chicken Farm, Williamsville, VT 03/27/103
The snow left the bed on the 26th and the tulips we all up about an inch above the ground! Lovely sign of spring. I'm a bit concerned about their survival in that my chickens have scratched quite a bit around the tips, but so far none have been broken.Gold Trail School, Placerville, CA 03/22/103
Most of our tulips were eaten by a gopher. But we did have about 10 of 50 emerge.Cub Run Elementary, Cub Run, KY 03/28/103
One of our tulips bloomed this morning. The rest are about to bloom. The class was excited to see a garter snake while we were pulling weeds in our garden. It crawled on someone's shoe. You should have heard the squeals!
More Reports
Green Star for Albany and Tulip Festival
 |
Planting tulips in the
fall at Albany Visitor's Center |
We are delighted to announce that the snow covering our tulip bed has finally melted and our tulips have emerged. The tulips first showed their GREEN shoots on St. Patrick's Day (March 17)... ...The students at School #20 have been doing a great job plotting all the data from the tulip garden updates on a big map in the school hallway. Green and red stars mark the emerging and blooming tulip gardens. We are so happy to put a green star on Albany. We had almost 100 inches of snow this winter. The 2003 Tulip Queen and her court are also pleased with the emerging tulips. ...May 9-11 is the annual Tulip Festival here in town...do you think our tulips will bloom before the festival???????
Reed Elementary
Reports Red
Dumas, AR 03/19/03
Here are photos of the Dumas, Arkansas tulips. Thought you might like
to see these. They are BEAUTIFUL!! Thanks!! Mrs. Sandline is so pleased!
- Susan Stewart
 |
 |
Mrs.
Sandline's Class Tulips Blooming in Dumas, Arkansas |
|
This Just In...Hot off the Information Super Highway
As many of you have learned, your tulip reports come into the Journey North sighting data base at all times of the day and night. We try to make our maps with the most current information, but sometimes your reports arrive a little too late to be a dot on the map.
At NorthSide Elementary in Fairfield, IL students took
to the tulip garden to take data, happy to have their tulips survive after
past experiences when the deer ate their plants.
“On Monday two tulips had bloomed and by Thursday we had a beautiful
bed of 27 red emperors. There are still several ‘buds’. Approximately
50 bulbs were planted in the tulip bed located in our schoolyard habitat.”
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
Students
exploring tulips in their garden in Fairfield, IL Courtesy of Gayle McGehee |
||
New Bulbs vs. Old Bulbs
Ever wonder why tulip planting instructions insist gardens are planted with new tulips at the start of each season? So do others:
Belle Sherman Elementary, Ithaca NY 03/21/03
Our tulips emerged despite cold weather - about 31 GDD. We are wondering why our tulips from last year planted in the same bed emerged at least a week earlier (we don't know exactly when). They are growing only a few feet from this year's, at the same depth, same variety, same soil, sunlight, slope, etc.
Cub Run Elementary, Cub Run, KY 03/28/103
One of our tulips bloomed this morning. The rest are about to bloom. The
ones we planted last year had come up about 9 days ago. We can see why
you don't use those in the study...
Challenge Question #13:
“Why do you think the International Tulip Garden Study directions require planting only new bulbs each year? How many different factors would make older plantings of tulips different from newly planted tulips?”
(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)
My Tulip Garden In...Challenge Question #14
Can you locate my tulip garden if I give you some hints?
 |
 |
 |
To the West Otter Lake |
This is my tulip garden
site. No tulips emerging as of 04/02/03 |
To the East Bald Eagle Lake |
My state's
tree is the Norway, or Red pine. We have only 3 gardens reported
Emerged in the state. Sap is flowing for making maple syrup now.
It snowed in the north yesterday. Red-winged blackbirds have been
here more than 2 weeks now. |
||
- So far nothing has come up in my tulip garden. This may be early for emerging according to the dates I have recorded in past years (Emerge dates 4/9/02 and 4/3/01).
- There are only 3 reports of tulips Emerged in my state. These were reported 3/14, 3/16, and 3/27.
- The sap is flowing here and some people are busy collecting and boiling maple sap to make delicious maple syrup. “Sugaring-off” parties are being planned.
- The snow is gone from my garden but there is still snow in the north of my state.
- Our Red-winged blackbirds have been here for more than 2 weeks now.
Challenge Question #14:
"In what state or province do you think my tulip garden is located? Send us your guess! (And, send a photo of your tulip garden, plus geographical clues, for a future Challenge Question.)"
(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)
Light and Life Under a Box
Springtime brings sunshine that energizes plants and animals (like people). Sometimes the simplist observation can turn into a lot of questions, or “what ifs.”
What a perfect time to look at some “what ifs” about the sun’s energy and how it affects plants.
Do plants need sunlight to grow? How much sunlight do they need? What if they had all light and no dark? What about the opposite?
How can you, as the scientist design tests to answer these questions?
Try This:
Ever wonder what would happen to a tulip plant emerging into the light
if you took away the light? Would it still grow? Would it stop growing?
Try this experiment and find out.
Take a box out to your tulip garden. With notebooks and tools in hand observe the plants in the garden and record what you see. How tall are they? How big are they across? Can you see individual leaves on the plants? What color are the plants?
Now use the box to put out the sunlight over some of the tulips in your garden. Check often under the box and record what you see.
What did you learn?
What Does Blooming Mean to a Tulip?
 |
Sappington School credit Laurie Johnston |
- Hubert Dyasi
A blooming tulip to most of us is a sign that the cold winter months have passed and spring has arrived. What a pleasure it is to finally see this bright red color after a drab, brown and gray winter. But, have you ever thought about what blooming means to a tulip?
Follow your own questions as you investigate your tulips and think about what and why tulips and other plants flower.
York, NE Mystery
New pictures arrived from York, NE today. Along with more digital pictures of their tulip garden they wrote to say, “We haven't had any rain since the emergence so they are really dry. I enclosed pictures of both this and last year's gardens which are within 10 feet of each other.”
 |
 |
Look what happened! |
Old and new gardens |
Gayle Kloewer’s class tulip pictures show evidence that the plants have been damaged. Use your investigative skills to answer this:
Challenge Question #15:
“The tulip plants in York have been damaged by something. What might have done this kind of damage? Give good reasons for your answers.”
(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)
Good Question from Woburn, Discussion of CQ's #10, #11
Holly Cerullo's 7th grade science class from Joyce Middle School in Woburn, MA gave us something to think about last time with questions about emerge dates and locations:
Challenge Question #10: "What is the distance between Woburn, MA and Madbury, NH?"
and...
Challenge Question #11: "How many different factors might be involved to explain why tulips in Madbury, NH would emerge before tulips in Woburn, MA?"
Ms. Cerullo’s class wrote back with their ideas and MORE questions:
- We found out that Woburn (us) and Madbury are 49 miles apart, which is about an hours drive.
- Both places had below normal temperatures all winter and more snow than normal.
- Both places are approximately the same distance from the ocean, Madbury is near an estuary, which could give it slightly higher temperatures.
They Concluded
“We don't think any of these are enough to cause the tulips in Madbury
to emerge 5 weeks before those in Woburn.”
More Questions
- Did the students follow all the rules for planting?
- If they planted too close to a building, or too shallow, the tulips would emerge sooner.
- We are confused about the garden because Maharimet wrote to report that the snowplow hit their garden and they were waiting for warmer weather to see if any tulips survived. (Tulips were then reported emerged at that site.) There seems to be something wrong with the data.
Maharimet Report Gives Clue to Mystery
On 03/26/03 Maharimet Elementary in Madbury sent this:
“Well the huge pile of snow that was dumped onto our raised tulip bed by the snow plow that rammed into it has finally melted enough for us to take a look at what has survived. Hurray! We counted 8 emerging tulips. There is still a hunk of ice in the middle of the bed so we are hoping for more when that finally melts. We are happy to be part of a challenge question. We were surprised when Billy brought in a picture of the tulip that he planted at home emerging so early. Just to give you a clue about the answer: he planted it close to his house.”
Looks like the mystery is solved! A garden planted close to the house warms up much faster (5 weeks) than one planted according to the Tulip Study directions. See if you can find evidence of how much warmer it gets near a building: watch for the first dandelion flowers this spring. Where do you see the first ones blooming?
How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions:
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 #13 (or #14, or #15).
3. In the body of EACH message, give your answer to ONE of the questions
above.
The Next Tulip Garden Update Will Be Posted on April
11, 2003
Copyright 2003 Journey
North. All Rights Reserved.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form
