With up to 50 new rides, shows and attractions, it will be the biggest of five Legolands worldwide. The park is packaged to entice parents and kids 2 to 12 years old to spend a day immersed in a world that revolves around plastic Lego bricks, one of the world's most popular toys.

The plans include reopening the historic botanical garden that founders Dick and Julie Pope carved out of a cypress swamp in 1936 and fashioned into what was claimed to be Florida's first theme park. The once-famous water ski shows could return in the form of a Lego-themed stunt show, and the park will get its own studio with a full-time staff of Lego model artists. Cypress Gardens' leftover midway thrill rides and one or both of its wooden roller coasters will be sold.

The Seattle rock quartet -- Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron -- has not played live since splitting up in the spring of 1997.

Sources tell Billboard the group is weighing offers from several major U.S. and international festivals, but a tour routing is still a work in progress, due to Cameron's prior commitments to play with Pearl Jam in the spring and summer.

Cameron has been Pearl Jam's permanent drummer since 1998; that group recently announced its first North American date of 2010 as part of the second weekend of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (April 29-May 2), and will also play 10 European shows from June 22 in Dublin through July 10 in Oeiras, Portugal.

"Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States," said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University's extension center in Riverhead, New York.

She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States.

"Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe's are some of the stores the plants have been seen in," McGrath said in a telephone interview.

Ohio parent company Scotts Miracle-Gro said Wednesday that it will cease Smith & Hawken business by the end of 2009, having hired a liquidator to help it do so.

The move calls for the closing of all of Smith & Hawken's 56 retail stores — including those in Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Burlingame, Berkeley and Walnut Creek. Going-out-of-business sales started Thursday.

"I can't believe it's closing — look at all the signs," said Anne Thatcher, pointing to postings in the Los Gatos store saying everything was up to 30 percent off. "I've always shopped here; they have everything from garden furniture to cute accessories to good healthy, plants.''

She said: "We are trying to promote growing your own food and vegetables, getting families and children involved, getting their hands dirty. "It's a growing movement throughout the country and we're just hoping to encourage that." This is the first time vegetables have been grown in the backyard of the monarch's London residence since World War II. Then, as part of the Dig for Victory campaign, royals and others produced 1.3m tons of food.