The flowers of scarlet runner beans are edible and can be used in salads and
other culinary creations. Just a thought the next time you have tons of
flowers on the bean plants.

Take care,

--
Lynn Smythe
e-mail:
website: http://users.adelphia.net/~lynnsmythe

"Guy Bradley" wrote in message
...
I thought the group might be interested in my experience this year
with Scarlet Runner Beans. I grew these for the first time this year,
more intriqued by the flowers actually than by the beans. I treated
them like pole beans.

During the hot summer months, the beans grew and flowered, but set no
beans. Had I not been so lazy, I would have pulled them out for lack
of productivity. But the flowers are so pretty!

Finally, about a month ago, definitely in the cool of fall, the plants
began to bear beans! They are continuing to bear even now - we haven't
had a frost yet, remarkably. The crop is never heavy, but continuous.

The beans themselves are flattish, like an Italian bean. The range of
sizes is incredible - some are only a few inches long and some grow to
a foot long. No matter how big we let them get, they still cook up
tender and tasty. Actually, the taste is better than expected - some
references said the beans were mediocre as green beans. I haven't let
any of them mature as dry beans.

If anyone has experience with Scarlet Runner Beans, perhaps you can
shed some light on this behavior, which I regard as unusual for beans.

Guy Bradley
Chesterfield MO
zone 6