One more, because it's so pretty...

So pretty @aftermidnight, you'd think they're orchids.

I am amazed at the colors of the Bean plants flowers. How many different colors of blooms are there? I have a couple dozen varieties of bean seeds but have never grown any with such color.

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

Is anyone on this thread with all of the beautiful flowered beans up for a trade? I am really a little tired of jumping through all of the houzz hoops to try and find traders, so I will ask where it is most relevant to what I am looking for. Thanks and sorry for posting this here. I have many things to trade.

Like the photos in the original post, all of these are runner beans. Runner beans tend to have more color variation in their flowers than common beans, as well as larger, showier flowers. Winged bean is also very attractive, tall vines with large, bright blue flowers... but I seem to have lost that photo.

Podpiper, send me a PM. I am looking for some new peppers to grow this year, so I'm sure we can work out a trade.

After the game I sure will.

Beautiful pics! Does anyone know of any pole limas with pretty colored flowers? Just curious...

Also, I have seen where you mentioned your spacing concept for pole limas, zeedman. Can I ask how you would space for maximum production for 8 people in a tiny 4x4 bed? Maybe 18" with 12 plants? I plan to let them go for drying.

The flowers of limas & those of common beans have roughly the same range of colors... and the blossoms of limas are even more inconspicuous. I've had limas that were covered with blossoms, and even then, I wouldn't classify them as decorative. The bees sure love them, though.

You can space pole limas more closely, but beyond a certain point, it becomes counter-productive. When the vines are crowded, they will be shading each other, and gradually nearly all growth (and pods) will be at or near the top. You end up with a tangled, impenetrable mass of vines at the top of the trellis (spoken from experience). In my short summers, I've planted pole limas 18" apart in rows, and they did OK... but I generally use 24" or more between plants. In areas with a longer growing season (where the vines will grow larger) 24-36" spacing in the row would be the minimum (more is better).

In that 4' X 4' bed, the problem becomes more complicated. Due to shading, you could only have 2 rows (running E-W); more than that, and all but the row on the south side would be heavily shaded. Sad to say, growing enough limas for 8 people in such a small space borders on the realm of impossibility. If you still want to grow limas there, a single row of a high-yielding pole lima (such as Carolina / Sieva) on the north edge of the bed, and bush limas in the remainder, would probably give you the best yield for the space.

Thanks, and sorry to hijack the thread! May I message you with a further question?

Fire away, I'd be happy to lend any help that I can. :-)

Zeedman, sent you a message and email. Maybe you did not get them?

No email Podpiper, but your PM was received... reply sent.