I have a pole bean growing, the plants are growing beautifully outside . I know this one grows exceptionally tall but there are no signs of flowers yet. I wondered about the heat being too much but I have another bean growing in my greenhouse which is very hot and it is yielding a lot of pods . My Gigantes which are a runner are full of flowers and they are outside. Puzzling??
My late varieties of pole beans are not flowering yet either. There are differences in flowering times. Some beans are clearly for after the 'summer holidays' and earlies are starting to produce now. I would not worry Jeannine.
I also have varieties not flowering. One is a variety, Armenian Striped Brown, which I'm a guardian for, for the Heritage Seed Library. So I'm hoping it flowers very soon. But I don't think it's time to worry yet.
Thank you both, this is my old family bean that I have grown only a couple of times and was determined to get seed from it this year to pass on. XX Jeannine
Thank you both, this is my old family bean that I have grown only a couple of times and was determined to get seed from it this year to pass on. XX Jeannine
It is not too late yet Jeannine. Hope they will show flowers and pods very soon.
Quote from: Jeannine on July 20, 2025, 14:48:01Thank you both, this is my old family bean that I have grown only a couple of times and was determined to get seed from it this year to pass on. XX Jeannine
Great to have that history. Does it have a name? If it doesn't, perhaps you could give it one?
Yes, Armenian Striped Brown is one of those that is a bit later, but always came good for me. What does HSL say about their origin?
Jeannine, is this the Italian bean you were looking for for so long, some time ago? Glad you found it and hope it comes good soon.
No the one I was looking for for so long was a Greek Gigantes, I searched and searched after I was without but they were small and finally I imported some seeds direct from Greece.
The bean in question was one my son in laws father grew, he got it from a Polish immigrant many years before I came to Canada which was originally 1n 77. My SIL remembers eating as a child. I first grew it in the early 80's with no problems for many years. When I went over to the UK for a few years in 2000 I shared it with gardeners there but it didn't germinate, neither did mine . In fact most everything we had packed and shipped along with our household stuff in a container did not germinate. I think it was because it was prepacked before we left sometime and was actually in a container for a few months and all through the summer so the heat killed them. When we came back in 2009 I got new seed from him but I haven't grown it for two or three years and not too often . I did so this year to specifically replenish the seed.I do have lots of seed but it is getting a bit old now.
The story behind it is this.
The original seed was given to Dan my son in laws father from a Polish immigrant neighbor, he got out of Poland just before WW2 and brought his seeds with him. Don, grew it annually. He told me the original seed was a reddish brown color with no marking and it was kidney shaped. He started to grow it and found he liked it better than the other types of pole beans he grew as it was very prolific. He did grow some bush beans for an earlier harvest. After a few years he got some different bean colors from his plants but continued on, till eventually it had changed, It is now a light to mid brown color with lighter markings and is more slightly oval to round than in the beginning. It has been stable for decades now and wa the same each year . It looks like a Dragons Tongue bean but is pole not bush. It makes a great green bean, a good shellie with butter and it dries very well. I use mine in Chile oh and it is definitely a French bean not a runner.
Don lived to be 96 and gardened right up to his last year although legally blind. After he was gone his bean seed stash came to me.I still have some of that seed and some of my own. I christened it the DON OLSON bean but in the family we call it Dad's bean.
It's a great story, Jeannine Thanks for sharing. And it sounds like an excellent all-purpose bean too.
Thank you for telling us about Dad's bean, Don Olson, Jeannine. Hope they will rally soon. Last year I despaired over Barksdale Wax Pole bean. But as soon as it got a little bit cooler, that one exploded into new growth, flowers and very heavy bearing.
By the way, just looked it up - I still grow Safari, Saxon, Valena Italian and Mantra from the wonderful seed share round robin, that you and Jayb organised all those years ago, and I shared Mantra with the seed circle.
And I can vouch for the continued circulation of Mantra which I loved growing in 2022. It's a great variety.
So the legacy of the fabled circulating seed parcel continues, and its seeds carry on being distributed further and more widely.
What a lovely story, Jeannie! I'm not part of the seed sharing circle, but always enjoy reading about it, and am full of admiration for the knowledgable people who keep these heritage seeds going, so important.
I was the very grateful recipient back in 2009 or 2010 of a special bean from Galina, when horrendous storms wrecked our garden here in SW France. It is the North Carolina Long Speckled Greasy Cut-Short bean, what a wonderful name! I still grow it and treasure it every year.
Keep the stories coming!
Glad you still like them, Peanuts, and glad they are still thriving with you. Your return gift, those great heat resistant French runnerbeans are also still in regular use here in the garden. Good for pods, good for fat beans and pretty to look at.
Glad you still have those, too, Galina. As I always g row ordinary runner beans for the pods, I only grow the Spanish ones for the dried beans for use in the winter in soups etc. They're so meaty. I hope you still have three different coloured flowers and three different coloured beans?
Yes, I do still have all types, but misremembered. They are Spanish, not French.
Well I have some tiny beans on my Gigantes this am, a lot of blossom drop too but the heat has been horrendous here for weeks, I do have a butterfly garden nearby which also brings the bees so the beans which of course are runners need them.
Those parcels were fun, well apart from the one that became toast well apart from the 2 that didn't make it.
I got finally got flowers on my Don Olson bean, thank goodness. My Gigantes have lovely pods on and still lots of flowers, the pods seem to get much bigger every day..we will have Plaki this year after all.
Yes my late flowering beans are now starting one by one too. Glad yours have also started.
Racoons are visiting regularly now for the grapes and I see they have been picking my crab apples,fingers crossed they don't decide to try my squash.
I am relieved the beans are flowering. Our weather has gone from roaring inferno to rainy and cool overnight so am a bit worried that this might be it for us, it is only mid August but it is not unknown, as long as we don't get frost we should be OK
Here the weather is crazy too. Have never known 37C in my childhood before I came to England. We got to go home from school early if it was 28C! Well the kids would not be in school at all these days. Having said that, we also had a very autumnal spell like you are having at the moment, Jeannine, before this crazy heat broke out.
The weather definitely is changing in front of our eyes and it will test which of our varieties can adapt and which will not.
And your racoons do sound like a pest you could do without. Fingers crossed.
Galina, I have to admit I do rather like the racoons as I hand raised an orphan for the SPCA, Rosie, in the 80s and that softened me up. I see their cheeky little faces peeping at me from the grape arbor when the outside lights turn themselves on, they freeze but I can see them clear as day. There is usually a Mum with a couple of babies each year. We gave up on the pond because the ate the fish and pulled all the plants up now they drink from the fountain we put in it's place. I don't mind them eating the grapes but they leave so many on the floor which is right on the path to my front door. Lovable little brats.Fortunately the bears can't climb my fence and they would not freeze so all is well.
We had a wee bit of sun today not much but at least not rainy and cold so fingers crossed it will keep up. One of my squash plants has given up. one of the smaller ones @ of the others are doing very well and one small one is hanging on. I picked the small one off the dried up plant, I will keep it and cure it and see if it is edible but I won't use the seeds from it.
Sorry