As we progressed through April, tulips bloomed to brighten gardens across the eastern U.S.
In late March and early April, we got blooms from Virginia, coinciding with students' spring breaks. Shannon in Vienna, Virginia, wrote on April 7, “We returned from spring break to see our tulip beds in full bloom!”
A few weeks earlier, on March 26, Susan in Vienna wrote, “110 of our tulips bloomed, the majority over spring break, so we didn’t get to observe all of them.”
Susan reported that tulips had emerged late this year, writing after emergence on March 1: "Our tulips emerged later than ever this year. We believe it was due to the heavy layer of snow with ice on top that persisted up until emergence day. We also had several strange weeds, but they did not appear to have an effect."
Last year, we got bloom reports in Vienna on March 24 and March 25. In 2024, a bloom report came in on March 18. Emergence was reported on Feb. 27 and Jan. 26 in 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Back to this year, and moving further north, we received reports on April 11 in Huntington Station, New York, and April 8 in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.
“Potted Bulbs. 1st flower opened April 9. Full pot of flowers full bloom April 11. Other bulbs planted in the grown mix of sun have growth & buds emerging,” Karen in Huntington Station wrote.
In Liverpool, New York, just north of Syracuse, Darlene reported Red Emperor blooms on April 19.
A few days later and quite a ways west, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Kelly reported blooms on April 22, writing, “Ms. Norby’s class observed the tulips in the morning. We felt shocked, happy, and excited to see them blooming.”
Two other reports from St. Paul were received on April 14.
Last year, in St. Paul, bloom dates were recorded as part of the Tulip Test Garden project on April 8, April 13, April 21, April 23, April 25, April 28, and May 5.
Thank you to everyone who reported their tulip blooms this year! If you’re participating as part of a classroom, hopefully, students were able to learn about science through this exercise, whether it was in forming hypotheses about blooms, tracking emergence dates, comparing previous seasons, or something else completely.