Hello Bulb Buddies,

There isn't long to go until planting day on 20th October! Are you ready? Here are some helpful resources to prepare you for planting your bulbs and for looking after them over the coming months! These are also on the Spring Bulbs for Schools website: https://museum.wales/spring-bulbs/

These resources will help you on planting day:

• A Letter from Professor Plant (introduction to the project)
• Adopt your Bulb (an overview of the care your Bulbs will need)
• Planting your Bulbs (guidelines for ensuring a fair experiment)

And these activities are fun to complete:

• Bulb Adoption Certificate
• Make Bulb Labels

It's important that you read these as they contain important information! For example, do you know how deep you need to plant your bulbs? Or how to label your pot so that you know where the Daffodil and Crocus are planted?

Remember to take photos of your planting day to enter the Planting Day Photo Competition!

Keep an eye on Professor Plant's Twitter page to see photos from other schools: https://twitter.com/professor_plant

Best of luck Bulb Buddies! Let us know how you get on!

Professor Plant & Baby Bulb

The Spring Bulbs for Schools project allows 1000s of school scientists to work with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales to investigate and understand climate change. School scientists have been keeping weather records and noting when their flowers open since October 2005, as part of a long-term study looking at the effects of temperature on spring bulbs.

Certificates have now been sent out to all of the 4,907 pupils that completed the project this year. See Professor Plant's report to view the finsings so far.

• Make graphs & frequency charts or calculate the mean.
• See if the flowers opened late in schools that recorded cold weather.
• See how temperature, sunshine and rainfall affect the average flowering dates.
• Look for trends between different locations.

I would like to thank all of the Super Scientists that participated this year!

Professor Plant www.museumwales.ac.uk/spring-bulbs/

Twitter http://twitter.com/Professor_Plant

One hundred and forty schools across the UK are to be awarded Super Scientist Certificates on behalf of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales in recognition for their contribution to the Spring Bulbs - Climate Change Investigation.

Huge Congratulations to all these schools!

A big ‘thank you’ to every one of the 4,907 pupils who helped this year! Thank you for working so hard planting, observing, measuring and recording - you really are Super Scientists! Each one of you will receive a certificate and Super Scientist pencil, these will be sent to your school by mid-May.

Many thanks to the Edina Trust for funding this project.

Super Scientist Winners 2016

Each will receive a class trip of fun-packed nature activities.

Ysgol Pentrefoelas - Wales

Biggar Primary - Scotland

Carnforth Primary - England

Runner's up:

Ysgol Nant y Coed - Wales

Severn Primary - Wales

Abbey Primary School - Scotland

St. John the Baptist Primary School – Scotland

St. Nicholas' Primary School - England

The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary School - England

Highly commended schools:

Schools with special recognition:

Schools to be awarded certificates:

Thank you for all your hard work Bulb Buddies,

Professor Plant

There have been lots of comments about the warmer weather we have had over the last week. The MET Office reported that Thursday the 17^th of March was the warmest day of the year so far with temperatures reaching 17 degrees. Silverdale St. John's CE School commented that “Thursday was the hottest day since December”. Many of you also made a connection between the warmer weather and your plants at long last coming into bloom!

Ysgol Pentrefoelas: Cawsom glaw dydd Llun a Dydd Mercher cawsom wythnos sych a braf redden yn ein t-shirt. Wythnos braf ers hir iawn. Wedi bod yn aros yn hir am y blodau i agor. O'r diwedd! Rydym ni wedi cael wythnos gynnes, sy'n helpu i'r blodau dyfu.

The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary School: Most of the crocus bulbs have now flowered and we have been busy measuring them. 3 of the daffodils in the bed have also flowered and there are a lot more in the bed and the pots which will flower soon. The weather is starting to get warmer now.

Arkholme CE Primary School: It was a warm week and some of the bulbs have started to bud and we are going to be watching them carefully.

The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary School: Lots of flowers this week so we have been busy measuring them. Most of the bulbs have flowered and they look very pretty. The weather is getting warmer and we have had some sunshine. We think that Spring is nearly here.

Professor Plant: Thank you for your up-date The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary. I would like to share your comment from week 9 here, this shows how quickly the weather changes, as in week 9 you were reporting wind and snow! The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary School: It was very exciting this week, as we noticed that nearly all the crocus plants had buds. It has been very windy this week and there has been heavy rain during some nights. This morning it snowed. When we went to check the plants this afternoon, the snow was almost all melted and 3 crocus flowers were out so we were able to measure our first flowers.

I’ve enjoyed receiving updates on your plants, thank you Bulb Buddies!

Severn Primary: Lots of yellow and purple flowers - we have taken photos!

Stonehouse Primary School: Everyone was so excited when we went round for our dinner and passed the pots and saw our first crocus open.

Shakespeare Primary School (270mm):  Dear professor plant the daffodils are doing really good mine's the tallest so far. From S

Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Flowering this year is a bit later, compared to last years!

Maesycoed Primary: Our crocuses have finally flowered hooray!!!

I have also enjoyed hearing about the different experiments you have been doing:

Mellor Saint Mary CE Primary School: When I moved my crocus into the light it flowered faster

Darran Park Primary: This week's growth has been 12cm so it has increased by 2 cm in a week

Maesycoed Primary: All of our class daffodils and crocuses have now flowered but the other class we were experimenting with, their daffodils haven't flowered but their crocuses have. Their yard is in shade most of the day and is cooler than ours.

The Bulb Team Rougemont Junior School: We planted 25 bulbs in a grid and all of the daffodils have flowered well and they are looking very healthy. Our daffodils in pots are slow to flower and look very small. We will send you a photo of our grid.

Professor Plant: I’m excited to hear you have been comparing plants in the ground to plants in pots Bulb Team. I would very much like to see a photo of your planting grid! I’m surprised to hear about the difference in size between your daffodils. Perhaps some of the mystery bulbs (Tete-a-Tete Daffodils) I sent you were mixed in with the Tenby Daffodil bulbs?

The Bulb team Rougemont: We are interested that our daffodils have small heads is this because they are a particular variety?

Professsor Plant: Hi Rougemont Primary. You were sent Tenby Daffodils, Whitewell Crocus and the mystery bulbs were Tete-aTete Daffodils. Tete-aTete are a miniature daffodil and so will be much smaller that the Tenby Daffodils.

Rougemont Junior School: My crocus is very thin and does not have many leaves. Why is this?

Professor Plant: Hi Rougemont Primary. Your Crocus plants will be much smaller than your Daffodils. They are small, thin, delicate looking plants. The leaves are also quite different to those of your daffodil, and are much thinner. If you have found that your Crocus is thinner and has less leaves than the others planted by your class, it could be because your bulb was smaller. Plants are all unique and even the same types of plant will be slightly different from one another.

And I have been interested to receive updates on the weather in your areas. St. Michael's Primary School reported severe flooding: "On Wednesday 9th March we had lots of rain which caused some flooding in Marston and the surrounding area". And about other activities you are involved with, Drumpark Primary ASN School reported that they had been “busy preparing for our Fairtrade Bake-off. We won a special trophy for doing extra hard work!”. Well done Bulb Buddies!

Many of you were very excited to let me know that your plants were the first to flower at your school:

F from Ysgol Pentrefoelas (10^th March): Hwre! Dyma'r blodyn cyntaf i agor o'r holl botiau!!

C from Newmains Primary School (14^th March): Our first daffodil!!! The same pot also gave us Crocus number 1.

R from St. Michael's Primary School (11^th March): This is our first flower!

L from Bickerstaffe CE Primary School: Mine was the first to flower.

Willow Lane Catholic Primary School: This is our first crocus bulb to flower

Some of you let me know that your plants haven’t yet flowered. Hopefully your plants are just taking their time, but if you haven’t had any sign of growth yet it is unlikely that your plants will grow now. I planted four pots with one Daffodil and Crocus in each. One of my Daffodils didn’t grow a bud and so couldn’t produce a flower, and one didn’t sprout at all. Sometimes this can be a result of poor conditions, such as not enough light, water or warmth. Sometimes it’s the soil or a defect with the bulb. I’m sorry if your plants don’t flower, I know it’s disappointing.

T from St Robert's R.C Primary School: I'm still waiting for my Crocus to flower!

E from St Robert's R.C Primary School: I'm still waiting for my daffodil to flower.

Bent Primary School: Our bulbs are growing slowly. They are about 9 cm high.

Brisbane Primary School: Our Daffodils still show no sign of growth!! We think the soil and location has worked against us.

East Fulton Primary School: All of our bulbs are growing but three!

Burnside Primary School: Most of our crocuses in the pots died even though we watered them and took care of them. DEAD.

Professor Plant: Hi Burnside Primary. I can see from the flowering records that 25 of the Crocus at your school have flowered! The life-cycle of these flowers is quite quick and they only flower for a short period. But the bulb itself will have stored lots of nutrients to help it grow again next year. There’s information on how to care for your bulbs so that you can re-plant them next year here: http://www.wikihow.com/Cure-Daffodil-Bulbs-for-Replanting . You can also look at the 'make your own origami booklet' resource on the Spring Bulbs for Schools website. This tells the story of 'the secret, undercover life of a bulb'.

Arkholme CE Primary School: Some of the bulbs from last year have flowered.

Professor Plant: I’m glad Bulb Buddies, maybe you can re-plant this year’s bulbs for next year too!

We also had some lovely comments sent in with the flower records. Thank you to everyone at St Robert’s Primary School, I have included your comments below.

"I can't believe it!!!"

"I liked the project!"

"I liked growing the bulbs!"

"Thank you for the bulbs!"

"Thank you Professor for the bulbs!"

"Thank you very much for my lovely bulbs!"

"I want to say thank you for my bulbs!"

"I like my pretty Crocus."

"I would just like to say that I think my Crocus is very pretty."

"This was so much fun thank you!"

"I would like to say that I liked planting my flowers thank you!"

"I loved doing this thank you. I really enjoyed planting the bulbs."

"I love my flowers thank you!"

"This was an amazing experience. Thank you!"

"I thought it was cool!"

"I love my Crocus!"

"Thank you for sending us the items to do this project!"

"I love my Daffodil Thank you!"

"Thank you Professor I love my Crocus"

"Thank you for letting me take part."

Professor Plant: You are welcome Bulb Buddies. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the project and that you care for your plants.

Gwaith da iawn Cyfeithion y Gwanwyn. Good work Bulb Buddies.

Hi Bulb Buddies,

I would like to congratulate schools that have entered flower records to the National Museum Wales website:

Daffodil: 

Crocus: 

Watch your plants closely Bulb Buddies, you could see flowers any day now! Please remember to share your flower records on the Museum website. My last blog and the resource on the website entitled ‘keeping flower records’ give you advice on how to do this. Once all the plants have flowered and everyone has entered their flowering records, we will be able to work out the average flowering date for the Crocus and the Daffodil. We will then be able to compare our findings to those of previous years.

We had predicted that plants would flower earlier this year due to a mild December, but a colder January – March and lower sunlight hours could have impacted on our bulbs. In my next blog, I will look at averages and compare the weather so far this year to the same period in previous years.

There have been some lovely comments over the last few weeks, which have shown a lot of care and concern for your plants. I would like to say a big thank you to all of you for looking after your plants so well.

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies.

Professor Plant