Back

Pick your pumpkin – the best to grow for eating and carving

It’s pumpkin season, but which are the best ones when it comes to taste and carving for Halloween? Find expert advice from RHS horticulturists on their tried and tested varieties

There is so much more to a pumpkin than becoming a creative feature for the traditional Celtic festival of Halloween.  As with all festivities, it started with a story and many surround All Hallows’ Eve, as it was known, and how the pumpkin came to be part of it, but suffice to say pumpkins were found to be perfect for carving.

So, whether you carve it, eat it, fill it or roast it, there are cauldrons full of ideas for your pumpkins.

Pumpkins for eating 

The edibles team at RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey had a pumpkin tasting session, to see which were the best for flavour, and texture of the flesh. RHS Horticulturist Pavlina Kapsalis shares the results. 

Queensland Blue is an Australian heritage cultivar with a medium-sized, muffin-top-shaped fruit. It has a dark green to grey ribbed rind, deep orange flesh and an excellent, sweet nutty flavour. It stores well and can be used for roasting, is great in pies, baked, or in soups. The trailing plant is vigorous, spreading up to 3m, but can be trained on supports. 

Bon Bon has small dark green fruit with grey stripes, buttercup type of winter squash with excellent taste and bright orange flesh. The name Bon Bon comes from the honey-like sweetness of the flesh when baked. Multipurpose use – roasted, baked, or in pies – and stores well.  

Crown Prince is one of the long-standing favourites, with blue, grey medium size fruit that can be stored for up to 6 months. It has tough skin, orange flesh and a great nutty flavour.

Uchiki Kuri also has a nutty flavour, with beautiful small orange fruit that looks like onions, and is very decorative. Perfect for a Sunday roast and will store for up to 5 months.

Squash ‘Uchiki Kuri’ has a nutty flavour
A few more good varieties to mention:

  • North Georgia candy roaster – an heirloom variety, banana-shaped with sweet, smooth flesh, which can be fried, pureed or roasted, and used in sweet pies. Originally cultivated by the Cherokee Native Americans

  • Lunga di Napoli – an Italian heirloom variety; large green, butternut-shaped winter squash with a deliciously sweet flavour

  • ​Boston squash – large, orange, crooked onion shaped squash, a vigorous grower

  • Spaghetti squash – interesting to try, not much flavour but when baked the texture of this squash is stringy and resembles spaghetti

  • Mashed potato squash – when baked and mashed it has texture of mashed potatoes, but with less calories, and a buttery sweet flavour

Top tips for cooking

Pumpkins and squashes can be eaten with their skin, which adds extra nutrients and texture to your food. All parts of the fruit are edible – the rind (skin), the flesh and the seeds, although some of the pumpkins with tough skin might take too long to cook with skins left on. 

Pumpkins for carving

© Martine Parnell
Get creative with your carving this year
 Any pumpkin can be carved but some are easier than others. The traditional orange, lightly ribbed pumpkins with softer skin are perhaps the easiest, but other cultivars we have found good for carving include:

  • Racer F1
  • Jack O’ Lantern
  • Jack of All Trades
  • Baby Bear (small fruit)
  • Prizewinner (large fruit)
  • Casper (white skinned)
  • Polar Bear (white skinned)
These are all easy to grow and the smaller varieties can be trained up supports, which look very decorative.

There are so many fun varieties of different sizes, shapes and colours so I would recommend growing your tried and tested but also trying out new exciting cultivars.

Pavlina Kapsalis, Horticulturist, RHS Wisley
Waste not, want not 

Pumpkin ‘Big Max’ has plenty of flesh and seeds to use as well as being perfect for carving
When carving your pumpkin, don’t waste the flesh and seeds, they can be used to make soups and stews, or try roasted pumpkin seeds as a snack. You could also try growing them on moist kitchen roll as tasty microgreens. Used pumpkins should be added to your food waste or compost, not left where wildlife (especially hedgehogs) can eat them. As well as seriously affecting their diet and spreading disease, they may eat candlewax or any decorations used on the pumpkin.

If you are planning to eat pumpkins bought from a shop or farm, check whether they have been grown using pesticides or fungicides. They should have a warning label if they are not suitable for eating. Paul Kettell, Edibles Team Leader at RHS Wisley added, “You can buy or grow ‘ornamental’ gourds, which are not suitable for eating and will be labelled as such. They are usually small and very ‘warty’ in appearance, and tend not to taste good. They are perhaps too small for successful carving but are often used for decoration through autumn and into Christmas.” 

Be inspired by pumpkin displays at RHS Gardens

​The Garden teams at the RHS Gardens, and at many RHS Partner Gardens, create fabulous displays of pumpkins. Visit a garden near you or plan a trip as part of your autumn half term holiday.  

Find your nearest garden >
Be inspired by pumpkin displays at RHS Gardens

Save to My scrapbook

Spooktacular Halloween plants

Spooktacular Halloween plants

Pick your poison – the deadliest plants on the planet

Pick your poison – the deadliest plants on the planet

Get involved

The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.