Phaseolus, Runner Bean 'Painted Lady'

This is a beautiful twining ornamental and a tasty productive vegetable. The bicolored blooms are reddish orange and white, and they attr...Read Moreact hummingbirds. 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 originally started this bean from seed several years ago. I had no idea that it would form a tuber and return year after year (here in ...Read Morezone 9b). The vine does die completely back, but it resprouts from the tuber each Spring.

I have grown this bean for years on tripods in whiskey barrels. It is by far the most vigorous runner bean I have grown, and very decorat...Read Moreive. It is very attractive to hummingbirds and grows extremely tall for me--some years over 15 feet. It does well in my short-season garden in the mountains, maturing very quickly. My only complaint about it is that it does not cling as tightly to the supports as some other varieties and sometimes slips down the poles. This problem can be avoided by using slender branches rather that fatter poles as supports.

We love this plant because we have to use somewhat unattractive fences to keep our big dogs out of the garden. Each spring I plant the b...Read Moreeans and by mid-summer they cover the fences with greenery and beautiful flowers that hummingbirds visit. I collect more beans than I need in the Fall for next year's planting and make bean dishes from the dried beans. I didn't realize until looking them up on the internet that some people eat them green. They grow well in full, hot sunny areas in the Seattle area