What other plant gives you hardly any hassle, grows quickly even in poor soil, and rewards you with first a beautiful yellow flower, then from the flower grows a loofah gourd that you can either eat (when still green, chop it, fry it, tastes like fried okra), or wait and let it turn brown on the vine, and then pick and collect the seeds for the next year, and you get a great loofah sponge too?

That would be the Luffa! The Loofah Gourd (Luffa Cylindrica) is a member of the Cucurbitaceae ( Gourd ) family. The Loofah is spelled several different ways, i.e., Lofah, Luffa or Lufa. It's commonly known as the Washrag Gourd. It is the only plant known that can be raised and used as a sponge. The sponges are very versatile in that they can be used for bathing, washing dishes or scrubbing. The Loofah is widely used for bathing to invigorate the skin as well as gift giving and crafts. It is a very fast growing annual that produce vines up to twelve feet or more. I have seen them grow over 20 ft. high in trees and produce dozens of gourds per plant.

When fully matured, you can peel off the dried and crisp outer shell to expose the fibrous sponge. To clean your Loofah you wash it in clean water and then soak it in a solution of bleach and water and allow to dry in the sun. Loofah sponges will last a long time if washed and allowed to dry after each use. These seeds are guaranteed to be 100% organic, grown by us, using no pesticides or chemicals of any kind, meaning synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and chemical defoliants never touches our plants.