Free garden planner — save plants, plan beds, and get sowing reminders for your spot.
Sign up freeCucurbita pepo var. ovifera
Ornamental gourds are decorative varieties of Cucurbita pepo grown primarily for their colorful and unusually shaped fruits rather than for culinary use. These annual vining plants produce a diversity of gourd shapes, sizes, and colors ranging from warty bumps to smooth surfaces, in shades of green, orange, yellow, white, and striped patterns.
Dipsacus fullonum
flower
Thrives in the same full sun, moderate water conditions as Ornamental gourd
Start Ornamental gourd indoors about 3 weeks before your last frost, keeping seeds in warm soil (around 20–25 °C). Seeds usually come up in around 7 days. Move seedlings out once the danger of frost has passed, in full sun, spaced about 90 cm apart. It is frost-tender, so don't plant out early. Expect the first blooms in roughly 100 days.
Ornamental gourd seed rarely stays viable beyond 4 years — track what's still worth sowing.
Water: Medium · Height: 180 cm · Soil: Well-draining soil, prefers fertile loam
