Flower Specifications
- Season: Annual
- USDA Zones: 3 - 11
- Height: 100 - 140 inches
- Bloom Season: Late spring to late summer
- Bloom Color: Mix
- Environment: Full sun
- Soil Type: Well drained, pH 6.6 - 7.5
Scarlet Runner Bean Mix (Phaseolus Coccineus Mix) - Every gardener should try growing runner beans. This unique plant is a decorative runner beans mix with colorful beans, three flower colors and edible young pods. Here is some very interesting facts about Phaseolus Coccineus, or commonly known as Scarlet Runner Beans:
- They are nutritious, good and healthy to eat
- Have a more distinctive flavour than French beans
- You can eat the fresh pods after cooking, or harvest seeds from older pods to cook as haricot beans
- They are often prolific croppers - with a deep freeze you can grow enough to last many months
- They easily grow in odd spaces amongst flowers, etc...
- Scarlet Runner Beans also carry attractive flowers
- Nowadays flat runner beans are not stocked fresh in small fruit & veg shops, or in tins or frozen packs
- Like other plants of the pea family this crop leaves your soil enriched in nitrogen
Scarlet Runner Beans have flaming red flowers that lasts throughout the summer. This wonderful mix has brown, purple, and red flamed beans as well as white. Flowers are scarlet, white, and bicolor red and white. The blossoms are less than an inch across and grow in clusters. The edible beans grow up to a foot long and especially good when picked young. Pick them often to promote continued flowering. Scarlet runner beans will quickly and brilliantly cover fences, trellises and other garden structures and will climb 10 - 12 feet.
Sow scarlet runner bean seeds outdoors after all danger of frost has passed. Plant seeds 1 inch deep and 3 inches apart. Germination takes 7 to 14 days. Keep the soil moderately moist during germination. Thin 4 - 6 inches apart when plants are 2 – 3 inches tall.
Runner beans are a favorite with hummingbirds and butterflies. Plant some on a back fence or a trellis and enjoy the flowers and the hummingbirds year after year! Plants need full sun and plenty of water.
