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Runner Beans are a Colorful Climbing Edible Perennial Plant

Dan Nursery Crops, Specialty Crops, This Land of Ours, Vegetables

A colorful climbing and edible plant to add to your garden. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Until recently, you’d typically only find runner beans in British gardens, but now, they claim spaces in gardens all over the world. It’s easy to see why. These tall vines produce colorful flowers and beans, acting as an edible and ornamental plant in your garden. If you’ve ever had green beans in your garden, then growing runner beans will be a piece of cake. Runner beans look like a larger version of green beans. Runner beans are a perennial plant, and green beans are annuals.

When a runner bean seed starts to grow, the stem and first set of leaves emerge from the ground first. When green beans grow, the two halves of the seed appear first. The vines on a runner bean plant twist clockwise, but green bean vines rotate counterclockwise.

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Runner beans are not only something you can eat, but they’re delicious. A few varieties you might want to try include Scarlet Emperor, Scarlet Runner, Sunset Runner Beans, and Black Coat.

Listen to Cathy Isom’s This Land of Ours program here.

Runner Beans are a Colorful Climbing Edible Perennial Plant