The first Journey North tulips have bloomed at last! Just after posting our March 1st report we received this news flash from the gardeners in Palo Alto California:
From CALIFORNIA:
March 1, 1996
At 8:00 A.M. on March 1st, we had no blooms. At 11:00 A.M. one tulip had bloomed, and by 2:00 another had bloomed. This was the first sunny day we have had for over a week. The tallest bloom was 24 cm tall and 14 cm in diameter. The blooms are beautiful, with rich red petals and a deep black inside pattern of 6 triangle shapes forming a hexagon. Our tulips were planted on 11/30/96. Good luck to the other tulip gardens!
Lynn Surber Lsurber3@aol.com
Hoover Elementary School
Palo Alto, California
Exciting news arrived from Tallahassee, Florida, just in time for this week's report:
From FLORIDA:
March 13, 1996
Our first outside tulip just bloomed! It is 30 cm high. We came in from lunch at 11:40 a.m., and a few minutes later Ms.Herring, our custodain told us to come outside and look at our tulips. We felt excited. Then Ms.Herring showed us a dead turtle that had been hit by a car. We consider the dead turtle a sign of spring too because it probably crossed the street looking for a mate. Spring is also turtle breeding time.
On March 8th, we took our potted tulips inside so they would not die in the 20 degree weather and sleet over the weekend--very unusual for Florida! (We planted 20 tulip bulbs: 10 in the ground, 10 in pots. All tulips were planted outside.) The warm classroom encouraged the potted tulips to grow about 9 cm. as well as open. The outside tulips were covered with pine straw. They survived, but did not grow as much.
Journey North students, Academic Resource Center
Tallahassee, FL beck@wane-leon-mail.scri.fsu.edu
Here is the beginning of our Spring, 1996 Journey North tulip bloom chart. When do you think your tulips will be added?
Journey North Tulips in Bloom
Spring, 1996
Date of First Bloom.....Place
03/01/96................Palo Alto, CA
03/13/96................Tallahassee, FL
This is a good time to link up with another Journey North classroom and try to predict each other's flowering dates. In this report we've included messages from many gardeners whom you can contact. You can also connect with another class by sending a message to jn- talk@learner.org
Many sites reported the first sight of tulips in their gardens. Tulips have broken through the soil in Tennessee, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Tulips are still under snow according to other students in Ontario, New York, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Their comments are provided below.
Now for today's Challenge Question. One of the schools below reports that their tulips are growing at different rates.
Challenge Question # 40:
"What is microclimate? Which students planted tulips in places with different microclimates and why is this causing them to grow at different rates?"
To respond to Challenge Question, please follow the directions at the end of this report.
From NEW JERSEY
February 28, 1996
Our tulips just sprouted through the ground about an inch. Only three are observed at this time.
Megan Braucher, Mrs. Goldberg's Class
Hubbard School, Ramsey, New Jersey mahubb@intact.com
From MARYLAND:
February 29, 1996
Hi, from Bowie, MD. Our class noticed that the tulips have broken through the ground. They are about 3/4 of an inch high. We must cover them because we are going to get snow later on today.
Lois Nichols, lnichols@umd5.umd.edu
Holy Trinity School Bowie, MD
From NORTH CAROLINA:
March 1, 1996
Daffodils and Forsythia are in bloom. Tulip leaves are about 4-6 inches long, but no buds/blooms yet.
Brenda Lange
Mrs. Fox's Class, Beverly Hills Elementary School
Concord, NC mlange@ctc.net
From PENNSYLVANIA:
March 3, 1996
Dear Tulip gardeners and observers,
Hi! I'm Meghan McManus, writing to you all from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. I'm not working on this project with my class, but I am working on it with a partner, Colleen Knarr. We bought tulips from a gardener to grow in our class room, they've grown very tall, our tallest is at about 22 centimeters. However, outside since the great blizzard passed through the north we had lots of snow, which has finally melted off. Our tulips are just beginning to pop up outside, hopefully the light dusting of snow we got yesterday hasn't killed them. Please write to: NHeilman@oak.Kcsd.K12.pa.us.
From NEW YORK:
March 4, 1996
Hi! We are Mrs. Seager's Second Grade class. We just went outside and checked on our tulips. We saw nothing but snow! The good news is - we saw only one inch of snow. We held up a sign with today's date and we took a photograph of our garden. We are going to take a picture every Monday. When our tulips bloom, we will send a photo to you on the Internet.
Mrs. Seager's 2nd Grade, Fyle Elementary
School Rochester, NY
Gail Petri, Librariangpetri@mail.monroe.edu
From TENNESSEE:
March 5, 1996
Hello,
We are experiencing an interesting situation with our tulips! We
planted them along two brick walls at the entrance of our school.
However, one wall shields the sun for the majority of the day so the
tulips planted there have not broken the ground yet. Along the wall
where the ground and tulips are warmed by the sun directly, we have
tulip breaking the ground and standing about 2-3 inches tall. We'll
keep you updated on our late-bloomers!
Shelley Eagen Sumner Academy,
5th Grade Teacher EAGENS@TEN-NASH.TEN.K12.TN.US
From ONTARIO
March 6, 1996
Boy, don't I wish we had some sign of our tulips! They are buried under four feet of snow (it was well over 6 at one point). We've had snow on the ground since October. In fact we were really lucky to get the tulips planted in time. I'm not sure how much snow we've had this winter but we must be near record levels. And it just keeps on coming...20 cms. last night and another 15 expected tonight.
Since we live in a ski community, I suppose that's good news. They expect Blue Mountain to be open well into April. I've been publishing the Journey North tulip reports in our weekly column (Cameron in Cyberspace) in our local newspaper just to cheer people up :-). Take care Diane Hammond markh@blue. georgian.net
From ONTARIO:
March 7, 1996
Greetings from Belleville/Trenton Ontario Canada The tulips are having trouble even getting a start. We had a spell of warm weather but then came 8-10 inches of snow then a melt. Now we have 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. The temperature hovers around the freezing mark during the day. We are hoping that the weather co- operates and we start to see the warm sunshine. Some schools last summer in our area received a large supply of tulips on the anniversary of Queen Beatrice daughters birth in Ottawa during the second world war. The Queen made part of the Ottawa general Dutch territory. She was so grateful to Canada that she donated thousands and thousands of tulips to Ottawa and Canada. Every year in Ottawa there is a massive tulip festival. It is a beautiful sight. More updates to follow...:) COLLEGPS@LoyalistC.ON.CA
From RHODE ISLAND:
March 7, 1996
Greetings from Mrs. Hyman's and Mrs. Nosal's Fifth Graders at the Orlo Avenue School in East Providence, Rhode Island. We have been going outside each morning this week to check on our bulbs. When we went out on Tuesday, March 5th, snow was covering the ground where we planted our bulbs. On Wednesday, the snow was melted, and Dwayne noticed the first of three shoots peeking up from the soil. We observed cracks in the soil where the bulbs were starting to come up, and we observed that the soil temperature was 38 degrees , while the air temperature was 32 degrees F. We also noticed birdseed around our bulbs, from birds feeding at nearby feeders. However, today (Thurs, March 7) the snow was back, covering our bulbs! This weather has been crazy! Mrs. Bramwell's Third graders have been keeping track of the snowfall this year, and they told us that between December and February, Rhode Island had a record 85 inches of snow. It hasn't snowed this much since 1947-48. Right now, we are preparing for another snowstorm. We wonder how this will affect our tulips that have started to come up.
Orlo Avenue School,
East Providence RI S00141@grog.ric.edu
From NEW YORK:
March 8, 1996
We planted 9 tulip bulbs in the front of our building next to the sidewalk and next to a small garden. We put a wooden gate with a metal chain cage over them so the squirrels would not eat them and so nobody would step on them. Since then, we have had snowy weather. The snow melted and then came back again. Nothing is happening with our bulbs. Right now it is 0 C outside. Aldo says that we do not have to water our bulbs because when the snow melts it makes water. We kept some bulbs in the bag. One was sprouting. It was in a bag in a closet with no water or no soil. Why do you think this happened? Please let us know. Our email address is: PPZH41D@prodigy.com.
Mrs. Lees 1st grade class, Portledge School,
Long Island, New York!!
From PENNSYLVANIA:
March 11, 1996
We have begun to see leaves of tulips coming from the ground. A recent spirt of cold weather and a recent ice and snow on March 8th had temporarily stopped their growth. Warm weather to come should help their growth. As of now the tulips are 11.5 cm with no budding yet.
Audrey Nolte, Richland Elementary
Quakertown, Pennsylvania
anolte@bucksnet.bcui.k12.pa.us
From NEW JERSEY:
March 11, 1996
Outside our front door facing West, tulips have poked out of the earth but since our recent snow storm on Friday 3/8/96 they are covered again. It's good to hear that tulips have bloomed somewhere in the USA. We know spring is on its way even after our snowiest winter on record.
Virginia Millard, rre@nile.intac.com
Roosevelt Elementary,
River Edge, New Jersey
From PENNSYLVANIA:
March 13, 1996
The tulips have bloomed in our classroom! The yellow flowers seem to smell like lemons and the purple flowers smell like some assorted fruit. Very beautiful blooms, however, outdoor tulips are under 2 inches of snow! Please write to:
Meghan McManus and Colleen Knarr
Lock Haven High School,
Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
NHeilman@oak.Kscd.K12.pa.us
How to Respond to Challenge Question # 40
1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #40
3. In the Body of your message, answer this question:
"What is microclimate? Which students planted tulips in places with different microclimates and why is this causing them to grow at different rates?"
The Next Tulip Update Will be Posted on March 29, 1996
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