BTW ... Those aren't flower along the leaf edges, those are small plantlets that, as you indicate, can be used to produce more plants. Don't know what variety of succulent you have, but I bet if you let one get tall enough, it will eventually send out a flower stalk.

The wisteria is more likely to attract bees than the butterfly bush. I have 4 BB in my yard and have never seen bees or wasps around them. The flowers on BB are to small for bees to get at the nectar. The "flower" you see is made up of hundreds of small flowers. I would keep the BB unless there is another compelling reason to take them out. BB can be and should be trimmed back every year.

Am still experimenting to find the optimal support for tall pole beans and the taller peas, like Alderman. Used to use double decorative metal arches that we could get in boxes for $8-10 dollars each; up to about 3 years ago, we could get 3 years out of each arch. But then the quality really dropped, and now they start bending and breaking by July! I rigged emergency supports by adding long t-posts and tying everything together, and was lucky enough to save the green bean crop (at least so far!). Now, the Zuchinni Rampicante area is also supported by these arches, but because of the different growth pattern, and the fact that the weight hangs down seems to stabilize the arches (which are tied together with a network of baling twine) so they last a full season. I have five beds with 6' t-posts with string netting, which work for cucumbers, but even those start leaning once the cover gets really dense. Only thing that has been successful is the 2x3 posts with cross-beam and netting, which I thought was serious overkill, but may now have to consider building similar in place of the other 12 support systems. The arches used to be the more economical route, but obviously not the case anymore. I did like the more graceful appearance, over the wooden posts with cross-beam approach, but it sure doesn't look graceful flat on the ground! Anyone have any experience with stability of PVC or galvanized piping for heavy growers like old fashioned pole beans? As you know, it's not the weight of the vines, it's that once they get going, they form a 'sail' for the wind to catch and heave the supports over to the side!

The horrible wet start to the season kept me from planting much of what I had planned, and much of what I direct seeded rotted in the ground. Still, there have been successes (and a few more failures). I was able to plant three beans on time in my home gardens, and all have borne seed: - "Serbian Pole" bore seed early & plentifully, and is a wonderful shelly... so it is a keeper. The dry pods & seed also show very good resistance to moisture, there was virtually no spoilage even in our very wet summer. - "Grandma Roberts" was grown in pots last year; this year it was a large row for eating & further seed increase. It did remarkably well - a couple meals of snaps, and over 4 pounds of seed thus far. The only down side is that the seed has a strong tendency to sprout in the pod, even in dry weather... at least every other pod has 1-2 sprouted. The upside: after letting the vines go for seed, nearly all of the pods have dried and been picked... and all of the vines are re-sprouting! I might get another few snaps before frost. Generally, beans drop all their leaves & die as the seed ripens, so this degree of re-sprouting is remarkable. - I lost 4/16 plants of "Flamingo" to disease, but the remaining plants were rampant, and completely covered the trellis. The flat pods are tender & sweet, outstanding eaten raw - DW & I snacked on quite a few. Unfortunately, once pods began to ripen, only two plants showed the bright red coloration... the rest were pale, or red spotted. Dry seed came late, but since it does not appear to be stable, I will not be saving seed, and will not grow it again. - "Garafal Oro" is the only bean that survived the June flooding in my rural plot - and even the lowest 1/3 of that row was lost. Fortunately, the plants that remained are lush & full of pods, which are just now beginning to ripen & dry. The color change is widespread, so I should get a good seed harvest before frost. Runner beans: - "Insuk's Wang Kong" has done exceptionally well; due to several cool snaps & the absence of really hot weather, it set a full pod load early. The majority of that seed has already dried (about 3.5 pounds so far) with maybe another pound or so still on the vines. All of that seed is either purple or pure black. I had been looking forward to seeing if any of the white seed reappeared, since I had not planted any of the white seeds the first time I grew it & wondered if it was hidden as a recessive gene. There are over 20 plants, and no sign of white flowers or white seeds... so it appears that the white was eliminated in one generation. - "Gigandes" is adjacent to "Garafal Oro" in my rural plot, and also lost part of the row to flooding. The plants were set back, and flowered later than usual. There are a lot of pods on the vines now, and a few are beginning to change color... but unless the frost comes late, I doubt I will get much dry seed. Limas: - "1880's Butterbean" (in my home plots) was transplanted late, but still set a heavy pod load fairly early. I've been picking handfulls of dry pods daily for a week now. The color change has become widespread, so I should get a good dry seed yield, and freeze quite a few shellies. - "North Star" is a large lima that I have never grown in quantity, so I was really looking forward to it this year... but it was transplanted very late into the rural garden. It has set quite a few pods, but is probably too far behind to make it. For some reason it was the plant that was nipped the hardest by a weak frost last night, which could be a mixed blessing... it might cause some of the pods to ripen faster. I've already posted about my success with a bush, non daylength sensitive hyacinth bean that I acquired in a trade. There is already a tray full of dry seed, and the bushes are still setting immature pods... so it too appears to be a "keeper". I have a Filipino friend who used to eat the dry seeds, so I will be getting more info on proper preparation. It's late & I have to get up early, I'll cover the rest of the legumes later.