Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec 18th, 2014: Longwood Gardens, Penn.

As someone who lives in western North America, I had not even heard of this garden.  But you've added yet another place I want to see someday, Garry!

Living in the UK I'm probably closer to Longwood Gardens than you are on the west coast of the American Continent !

And these gardens are not all that's growing in Kennett Square; it also happens to be the mushroom capital of the U.S. and the little white "button" mushrooms that are wonderful fresh (and not so bad as you'd think in cans) are the main cash crop of the area. Which is why they have an annual mushroom festival the weekend after Labor Day; they say it draws upwards of 100,000 people!

The FESTIVAL WEBSITE also includes information on their New Year's Eve event, which they describe as "Ring in 2015 as everyone joins together in counting down the new year, cheering in celebration as a spectacular 8-foot wide and 7.5-foot tall, 500 pound stainless steel mushroom sparkling with thousands of lights descends into the middle of the Square!"