PUMPKINS GET a bad rap, carved up for candle holders or used as decorations for the Thanksgiving table. They've become a symbol of spooky nights, or just an orange mush that comes out of a can to make delectable pies for end-of-the-year holidays. We forget that pumpkins are easy-to-grow vining fruits with a wide assortment of shapes, sizes and shades that provide garden pleasures over a long season.

A pumpkin is a winter squash that is at least 80 percent orange to yellow (except for the pale ghost pumpkins). Some ornamental gourds look very pumpkin-ish and they share the same family name (Cucurbitaceae), but gourds are distinguished by their durable shell, so hard it can last for thousands of years. Other vine crops such as cucumbers and melons originated in Asia and Africa, but pumpkins are new-world fruits - hence their association with early settlers and Thanksgiving.

Then there is the whole frenzy over giant pumpkins that has nothing to do with holidays and everything to do with male macho. Lest you think that a sexist remark, every photo in the book "How-To-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins" (by Don Langevin, Annedawn Publishing, 1993), features a guy, usually wearing a cap, standing proudly next to a swollen orange orb weighing hundreds of pounds. You wouldn't catch many woman giving up garden space (giant pumpkin vines can cover 800 to 1,200 square feet), growing such grotesques.

A chapter entitled "The Heavy Hitters" profiles dozens of men devoted to the quest of coaxing along the world's first 1,000-pound pumpkin, competitors in a sport regulated by the World Pumpkin Confederation. There are lists of the 30 heaviest pumpkins ever grown, and photos of little boys sitting atop the bloated prize-winners, their legs dangling into space. Life's a competition. So be sure to start out right: Pumpkins grown from the seed of Dill's Atlantic Giant have won all recent world records. A surprising number of champions have been grown in the Northwest, including the 974-pound giant that won a major competition last October for Fife resident J. Lincoln Mettler.

Conditions for growing healthy pumpkins, giant or not, are pretty straightforward. Pumpkin patches need full sun, plenty of water and good soil enriched with compost and manure.

I remember as a kid pushing pumpkin seeds into damp dirt in a paper cup, transplanting the prickly vine into the garden, and being amazed at the results. I'm sure kids still plant pumpkins as science projects; every part of growing them is so satisfying. Leaves like rough lily pads, fruit that seems to double in size each day, and then there is the carving, the toasting and eating of pumpkin seeds. This year, a neighbor grew a pumpkin vine in a raised bed along the sidewalk, and it slows all the kids down on their way to the bus stop (even the so-cool middle-schoolers) as they stop to count the little pumpkins coloring up.

While pumpkins might not come to mind as we search out the most delicious, sophisticated or showy plants for our gardens, I'd argue that pumpkins are all of the above. Consider these varieties: `Baby Boo Mini' is a white 3-incher ideal to grow up an arbor; each vine of `Jack-Be-Little' bears dozens of deep orange, perfectly proportioned miniatures; `Lumina' is a plump, satiny cream-colored 12-pounder with sweet golden flesh for pies and soups. Or what about `Cinderella,' an antique French variety whose flattened, deeply-lobed shape served as the original model for Cinderella's fairy-tale coach?

Plant an assortment for a flashy pumpkin patch guaranteed to bring out the kid in us all.

Valerie Easton is a horticultural librarian and writes about plants and gardens for Pacific Northwest magazine. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com

Now In Bloom: We grow roses for the beauty of their flowers, but Rosa sericea pteracantha is at its most spectacular after leaves and creamy single flowers drop off. Winged, blood-red thorns glow along the canes, adding intimidating, eye-catching texture to the late autumn and winter garden.