FREE: Painted Lady Runner Beans

The listing, Painted Lady Runner Beans has ended.

This bi-colored variety of Scarlet-runner Bean, with showy scarlet and white flowers, is an heirloom of garden origin. This tropical American species was popularized by 18th-century garden writer, Philip Miller. Jefferson planted Scarlet-runner vine in 1812 for its beauty and shade, noting: "Arbor beans white, crimson, scarlet, purple...on long walk of garden." Sow the large, mottled seeds 1-inch deep in well-prepared soil after the last frost. Climbs to 20 feet and requires a trellis, arbor, fence, or beanpoles for support. Beans are edible.

In Colder zones, this plant is grown as an annual, though it is perennial in its native Mexico. In fact, the fleshy roots can be dug up in the fall and stored like dahlias, to be replanted the following spring. They will bloom earlier than if grown from seed, but they do grow so quickly from seed that this is hardly necessary. Might as well just cooked them up, yum!

At least 6 beans