Runner Bean 'Dwarf Scarlet Bees'

This is a beautiful twining ornamental and a tasty productive vegetable. Blooms are reddish orange and not really scarlet, and they attra...Read Morect 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.

In my very windy garden, 'Dwarf Scarlet Bees' (which I originally purchased labelled 'Dwarf Bees') has more of a vining habit than it see...Read Morems to have for most people, reaching about 5 feet in an average year and benefiting from being staked. It is a simply lovely plant, so beautiful that it could easily be planted in a flower bed instead of a bean patch. Bees love it!

This is an absolutely beautiful edible ornamental. I've used them amongst flower beds before. They are good to eat as snap beans or as dr...Read Moreied beans from my experience. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find the seeds for 3 years now.