Tulip Test Gardens
Update: March 4, 2010	Please report:
This week gardens are popping up as we gain more daylight across the Northern Hemisphere. Our first tulip garden has bloomed for the 2010 season! Get out your markers and learn about isotherms and temperature maps. Then, in honor of the first blooming garden we look closely at flowers. Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast. Put on your lab coat and let's explore! Today's Report Includes: Maps: Gardens Emerging Journal Page: Flowers: Take a Look News: Tulips Emerge in NYC Garden Getting Started: This Week's Tulip Garden Resources	First Tulip Garden BLOOMS!
	Students at the Cooper School in South Carolina have also reported the first honeybee, butterfly, red-winged blackbird, earthworm, and leaf out! What can we learn from their garden?
Maps: Gardens Emerging—It's Happening!
So far 72 of 418 gardens have emerged. What percentage is that? Spring sunshine and warmer temperatures are helping melt the record snows this week along the East Coast. With the melting gardeners are finding their gardens are beginning to emerge. Spring Hill Elementary reports: "We can't believe after all the snow plowed up onto our tulip garden that anything would be growing already! Out of 80 bulbs planted in this garden we counted 19 emerging from 1/2 to 2 inches tall." McLean, Virginia At the same time temperatures are also heating up in the Northwest, where they have had unseasonal warm weather. Anne Sullivan School reports: "We have been having unseasonably warm weather and sunshine for the Northwest and just noticed that our tulips have emerged about one inch above the surface." Read all the Garden Highlights map/sightings (North America) map/sightings (Eurasia) This Week's Map Questions (Handout)
Journal Page: Take a Look
Scientists rely on their skill at observing and recording the world around them. Practice your observation skills out in the garden or here at Journey North. Compare and Contrast To celebrate the first tulip garden blooming let's take a closer look at flowers. We will start with one you all will soon be familiar with, the Red Emperor tulip flower. Use a Venn diagram to help you compare it with another early-flowering plant, the marsh marigold. Take a Look: Flower Anatomy	Flowers come in amazing shapes and colors. Notice their differences and similarities!
News: Tulips Emerge in New York City Garden
In November, gardens were planted in the only available space at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School. Now one of the gardens planted around the base of a sidewalk tree has emerged! They reported on 3/01: "This was the snowiest February on record for NYC. We had 21" of snow last Friday (2/26). Snow is at least 14" high in a mound covering our tulips, but this morning in the corner of one of our gardens, there are 4 emergents about an inch high. Spring, however has definitely not come to NYC!"	A New York City garden planted in November has emerged despite record snowfall in the city. Their records show this is about one month later than normal!
Related Journey North Lessons and Links
Explore: Flower Anatomy Journal: Journey North Spring Checklist Study: Isotherms: Bands of Temperature Color Mapping Spring Data: Lessons and Resources Questioning: Making Sense of Journey North Maps Helpful Weather Links: Climate Weather and Seasons Tulip Garden Journals (click-and-print)
More Journey North Lessons and Teaching Ideas!
The Next Tulip Garden Update Will Be Posted on March 11, 2010. Facebook Pinterest Twitter © 1997 – 2019 Journey North. All rights reserved.