Excellent for crafts and fun to grow these gourds will delight with their swan-like shape. The base can be up to 8 across with a flat bottom while the neck resembles a swan s neck curved elegantly downward. These gourds are green with creamy speckles and the shell is glossy and hard when dried. Each gourd takes about 120 days to ripen. The origin of gourds has been a subject of debate for decades. Archaelogical findings seem to show that Asia first domesticated the gourd for use as a container though Africa and several island nations such as Polynesia and New Zealand also have an early history of using gourds as fishing floats bottles or musical instruments. Recent research shows that North America s gourds are nearly as old as those of Asia which seems to suggest that early peoples who settled in the New World brought gourds with them.
