We visited the US Botanic Garden’s annual “Season’s Greenings” display titled “Roadside Attractions” featuring plant-based recreations of iconic sights from across the United States, with G gauge model trains chugging around, below, through and above the displays.

The tallest concrete gnome in the world is dubbed Elwood and lives at the Reiman Gardens of Iowa State University in Ames. It is 15 feet tall and made of 3,500 pounds of steel rebar and concrete. The Reiman Gardens commissioned him for their theme “A Celebration of Garden Ornamentation,” hoping to attract visitors and set a world record for the world’s tallest gnome. Unfortunately, right before completing the project, they heard about an 18-foot-tall gnome that had been built in Poland. Luckily that one was made of fiberglass, leaving the title of “World’s Largest Concrete Gnome” to Elwood.

Building materials: Hat, gourd; beard and hair, roots, driftwood; ears, badam pods; eyes, lotus seeds; eyelids, acorn caps; lips, hickory nut hull; skin, tobacco leaf; body and shoes, gourds; shirt, palm fiber; shovel, driftwood; flower, bell pods

The Mevlâna Museum, posted earlier: