Questions from cab driving today:

1) saw a kid in a T-shirt that said "Proud to be a Flying Pig Grunt". I told my next fare I was curious about the shirt and she said, "Oh, no, you don't want to know", but she didn't know anything about it. Turns out it's a volunteer's shirt for the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon.

2) I was telling everybody I saw the first forsythia blossoms of spring by the Ruthven Museums Building loading dock entrance. Later I was able to stop and snap a couple of pictures with my digital camera:





...and I said to myself, "this isn't a forsythia!" I mentioned this shortly after to a regular I picked up at a campus watering hole, and that I had to find out what the plant was. He got on his cell phone, and I heard:

"Hi, this cab driver wants to know what the flowering bush by the Ruthven loading dock is...stringy yellow blossoms...witch hazel? Ok, thanks."

So I asked who he was talking to and he told me it was the Chief Under Secretary of the University of Michigan Ministry of Grounds and Horticulture (or something like that). You just have to ask the right person.







Witch Hazel Update, 3/11/2010:

Today I found another witch hazel, at one of Ann Arbor's most prominent homes, the Christian Eberbach House.

Last word on the Natural History Museum witch hazel:

Hi Jerry,

The one you were looking at is actually a hybrid variety called Arnold Promise (Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’). There is another variety planted right by called Diane. It has more of a copper colored flower and usually comes out a little later. With our temperatures it should be popping any day. These particular plants are always one of the first things on campus to flower in the spring and so they do catch your attention. I’m glad they catch your.


Kenn Rapp, LLA, ASLA
University Landscape Architect
The University of Michigan


I just emailed a query from the U of M Landscape Architecture "contact us" page, so I don't have the text of the email I sent. Thanks, Kenn!

p.s. a great online resource for viewing these shrubs is at the University of Delaware Botanic Gardens page...