Journey North International Plant Study

Spotlight on Tulip Gardeners
Your comments Reported March 31 - April 7, 2006

Gustavus Elementary in Gustavus, AK 04/01/0 EMERGED
Tulips are emerging under a thick layer of mulch. We had a very cold snap for our area with temperatures down to zero two weeks ago (mid March), but it looks like spring is finally coming our way. We'll remove the mulch when temperatures warm up in a week or so. Our site was a focus of Journey North's Challenge Question #3.(Is is going to be too late for the Gustavus, Alaska tulips to root before winter?)I guess not!!! And, we are the first Alaskan garden to emerge...just as my class predicted.

Roosevelt Elementary, Racine, WI EMERGED
It was near the begining of spring when we checked the tulips.They were about a decimeter high.Some were planted upside down, cut in half, one half right side up and the other half upside down. And they still grew.

Bridport Central School, Bridport, VT EMERGED
We did not report planting our tulips last fall, but were very excited to find them up and growing fast because of some very warm days. This is the earliest (by 2 weeks) our tulips have come up in five years. We think its because we didn't have much snow and no long spells with below zero temperatures.

Monroe Elementary, Hinsdale, IL 03/22/06 EMERGED
Monroe School has planted about 1200 tulips as part of the Journey North Project. We can't wait to see them bloom!

Perkiomen Valley HS, Collegeville, PA 04/06/06 BLOOMED
Almost all of the tulips we planted have emerged and are beginning to bloom. The buds colored up last Thursday, but temperatures dropped dramatically over the weekend and now a week later, still cold, the flowers are finally begining to open. The stems are much shorter than in past years, only 3-4 inches and the stems are almost the same length as the buds.

Lafayette Elementary, Seattle, WA 04/03/06 BLOOMED
We came to school today to find all 50 of our Red Emperor tulips in glorious bloom! As one student commented from across the playground, it looks like part of the school garden is on fire! The tulips, while being just beautiful, seem stunted in height, and we are curious as to why this might be... It is important to note that the same is tru of MANY of the tulips in our larger neighborhood.....Throughout the Seattle area, tulips seem to be a bit verttcally challenged this year! We are wondering if this may be due to a frigid cold snap that occurred in March, after a couple of weeks of higher than normal temperatures and sunny days..... Still, they are just fantastic, and everyone is commenting on how wonderful the huge patch of red is in our school garden. We wish everyone involved in The Journey North a happy arrival of Spring!

Langley, WA 03/31/06 BLOOMED
This has been an interesting year in our garden. We had a late snow that burned many of the edges of our blooms. We had deer tracks in the garden and have many edges and buds eaten off. We have had rabbits all around, too. We will be digging our tulips this week, making "Happy Spring" cards, and taking them to the senior housing nearby to brighten their day!

Portland, OR 03/29/06 BLOOMED
The tulips in our warmest microclimates - on the east side of the building and on the south side of a concrete wall that is our school sign - bloomed on 3/29. The tulips in our cooler sites - our Outdoor Classroom and in a cut-out on our black-top covered play-ground, bloomed 4/2. We had a warm couple of days - up into the low 60s - about 12 days ago. Then it turned cooler than usual - nighttime lows back into the upper 30s, daytime highs in the upper 40s and low 50s. We're back to normal yesterday and today, more like mid 50s high.
I had to go up to school to check daily, since we are on Spring Break this week. We also learned that tulips don't do very well were there is a lot of foot traffic and/or where they get clobbered by stray playground balls. No data from those sites!