Journey North Tulip Garden and Climate Change Study

Spring at Latitude 45 Degrees North
Elk Rapids, Michigan
45 North, 85 West
(Back to map)

We have a wide range of weather throughout all four seasons, in Elk Rapids, MI (44.9, -85.4). Our winters are quite snowy and cold. We have been in the teens and a few 20s with several days below 0 for several weeks now, and have a couple of feet of snow on the ground. We have hot, humid days in the 80s, sometimes 90s in the summer. We have frosty falls and rather short springs.

We are situated directly on the shore of Grand Traverse Bay, which is part of Lake Michigan. Our weather is influenced heavily by lake effect rain and snow, which we get in abundance. The shoreline is sandy, often with dunes and beach grasses. It buffers some of the cold Canadian winds that blow through and our temperatures can be 10 degrees warmer than just a few miles inland.

This winter has been particulary cold, so much so that we're having difficulty measuring ground temperature. The Bay has a few hundred yards of ice on it, which allows for the land near the shore to freeze more than usual as the temperatures drop.

Thanks,
Leslie Gutknecht, Lakeland Elementary
Elk Rapids, MI

March 24, 2009
So sorry that for some reason our initial sighting report was in fact not reported. We did have the southern exposed tulips emerge 3/24, and recall typing up our report that we still had snow on the ground, but were encouraged to nevertheless see the leaves poking up. We then went off on our spring break and returned to see the latest update not listing our garden as emerged. Our apologies!! We have had some very cold days since then and more snow, so no blossoms yet, but we'll try to make sure next time that our news really travels.

April 29, 2009
We were very happy to see our beautiful tulips in full bloom. Some of the bulbs planted on the north side of our garden did not emerge or have not yet bloomed. We had a particularly cold and snowy winter and may have lost some of the bulbs. This side of the garden also does not receive as much sun, and the snow stayed much longer there. The ground temperatures remain colder than the other side as well. We're off to do some measurement!

Our Garden Journal

About Our Garden

PLANTED: October 31
EMERGED: March 24
BLOOMING: April 29