This is a beautiful ornamental and a tasty productive vegetable. Flowers are bicolored white and pale salmon and can attract hummingbirds...Read More. If you keep the pods well picked, it will continue to bloom for months. (Flowering stops if pods are allowed to mature on the vine.) Blooming may pause in heat of summer if temperatures are often over 90F, then continue when it cools.
Consistent moisture is needed for good bean production. In drought, these must not be allowed to dry out.
I enjoy the pods steamed or boiled, with a little butter. All parts of the plant is edible, including the roots.
All beans contain lectins, which can cause GI distress. Runner beans are no more toxic than any other bean. Cooking destroys the lectins.
As with any bean, wait till the soil is warm before direct sowing, as they can rot in cold soil. I use the traditional phenology for planting corn---plant when the oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear.
This is a perennial where it's hardy, but usually grown as an annual north of its hardiness range. The Missouri Botanical garden says it's hardy in Z7-11.
I got seeds from Park Seeds and had tried to grow them in pots and in ground. I loved the flowers and jade green heart shape leaves. But ...Read MoreI had only three beans in season of 2010. I am growing it again, it blooms beautifully now, hopefully there will be more beans this year.
This is a lovely plant with beautiful flowers but so far no beans. I have lots of bees here and see them around the bean flowers and ye...Read Moret where the bean would start is only the remant of the base of the flower. I had to go ahead and plant another crop of pole beans because hestia though very decorative are not producing beans. Very frustrating. I will probably grow them from now on just for the looks and make sure I plant my old reliables.
I like this plant a lot. Pretty flowers. Worth growing just for that; beans are a bonus. 67-percent germination (planted three seeds, tw...Read Moreo came up). About 5 weeks here in zone 10 from planting seeds to blooms; 70 day to crop--we'll beat that by two weeks at least.
Southwestern, OH (Zone 6b) | February 2006 | neutral
From Harvest Moon Farms and Seed: "A superb variety with all the best characteristics of modern runner beans, but on dwarf plants. Early...Read More to crop, often before standard types, with a good yield of tasty, long, straight, stringless pods, held above the soil to avoid disease. Ideal for small gardens, large containers and borders where its bicoloured flowers of red and white make an attractive addition."
This is a beautiful ornamental and a tasty productive vegetable. Flowers are bicolored white and pale salmon and can attract hummingbirds...Read More
I got seeds from Park Seeds and had tried to grow them in pots and in ground. I loved the flowers and jade green heart shape leaves. But ...Read More
This is a lovely plant with beautiful flowers but so far no beans. I have lots of bees here and see them around the bean flowers and ye...Read More
I like this plant a lot. Pretty flowers. Worth growing just for that; beans are a bonus. 67-percent germination (planted three seeds, tw...Read More
From Harvest Moon Farms and Seed: "A superb variety with all the best characteristics of modern runner beans, but on dwarf plants. Early...Read More