I've never had squash of any kind yet. I'll be dorking out about squash next year I'm sure. I have 3 couples that want squash, so I guess I'll go ahead and do the 8 plants and just give away a ton. Might as well, I'm getting a seed pack of each with 25 seeds each so no need to save seeds.This is my first year ever growing any type of winter squash so I've been PUMPED over these pumpkins. I also grew several vines of a large blue pumpkin, but only one vine produce one pumpkin, and it is easily the size of TWO basketballs. The plants are still growing so I'm hoping for one to two more at least. The description said the blue ones were good for carving, eating, and storing. Plus they look beautiful.