Kitchen Garden Forum

After seeing the response to Nemo's query about which climbing bean. I would like to ask if anyone can recommmend a runner bean. My OH doesn't like runner beans, I have tried this year to grow dwarf Hestia runner beans which did incredibly well and they were still flowering right up till last week. But I still had to give them away as he did not like them and there's only so many I can eat. The first one we ever grew was Scarlett Emperor and I think that was the one that put him off.

Dear Catherine, my favorite is Enorma, they are quite long and fairly smooth with a good taste.

Scarlett Emperor is a good bean but they are best being picked when nice and young.

I like Red Flame. I lost a few this year when I failed to notice the root trainers were getting waterlogged in the drip line of the staging so I bought a few Kelvedon Wonder plants, the wonder in the name is "I wonder why anybody grows them".

I like the Black Magic runner beans from the Heritage Seed Library. I've saved seed for a few years now and they are excellent. They flower well and set easily they are stringless until they grow large and have a good flavour. I could offer you some seeds, but have grown a couple of other varieties this year, so they may have cross pollinated.