Oh, I LOVE those bumbles! :) I have to grow luffas every year just because I like watching the bumble bees on them.

What a cute story you told. Thanks for sharing it. :)

i'm going goards for the first time, i saw the loofas,
but didn't pick them up

maby i'll give them a go, too

tesa

I watched the bees forever on Saturday...it's fascinating.

Louffas are fabulous! (However you spell them ~ luffa, loofa, loufa, louffa, lewfa. ;) They need a big trellis (last one I did was eight feet tall and they grew to the top and back down halfway), but after that's built, you don't have to do a thing for them other than normal fertilizing/watering until after the first frost. Then you just let them hang (on the trellis or put up somewhere else) until completely dry, remove the skin and seeds, and voila! Plenty luffas to keep you in exfoliating bliss all year AND Christmas presents ~ just put a cleaned one in a Christmassy bag with a small bar of smelly soap and maybe some bath oil beads (or spicey soap on a rope for the guys)and you're good to go. I tied some thin cotton rope to each end to make back scrubbers once (just hold a rope in each hand and scrub away) and they were a huge hit.

dang, thats a good idea, well that does it, i'm
gonna go and fetch me some loofa seeds

and they take part shade? i've got plenty of fenceline
to work with, but most of my full sun spots are reserved
for my blooming vines, the spot i'm thinkin' of gets
maby 4 or 5 hours of sun, but that number should be
getting bigger, as the sun moves higher in the sky

t

I don't know from experience if that would work, but I'd think it would ~ you just maybe wouldn't get as many luffas.

Out of half a dozen seeds/plants in full, all-day sun I got probably three dozen fruits of useable size. So you'll likely get enough to keep yourself in luffas atleast. And will get more seeds as well. There are a hundred or more seeds in each big mature one, so if you don't get many this year, you can save seeds and try again next year in a sunnier spot. (They're a different species of gourd, so won't cross with most all of the regular gourds and the seeds will come true next year).

Can you tell I just love these thangs? :)