Beauty and Abundance in one Perennial Plant
Edible Perennial Scarlet Runner Bean
Scarlet Runner Beans may be the only perennial bean there is. If they are more, I have never heard of them and would love it if someone told me about them. For those that don’t know, Edible Perennials are plants with at least one edible part, that produce crops year after year without the need to replant each year.
Scarlet runner beans will grow and be perennial in most any area that does not end up with the ground being solidly frozen. Even then, they will still grow in some places if they are well mulched before the first heavy frost.
Unlike many perennials, the scarlet runner bean plant will die back at the end of the season. This makes some people think it has died completely. But as long as the root ball does not freeze completely, it will start to grow again when the weather warms up and the soil temperature reach’s 60 to 70 degrees.
Some People Grow Its For its Beauty
Many people grow this plant specifically for the beauty it adds to their yard. It is a vine that need to be grown on a supporting structure, but it is covered in beautiful red flowers and each one can become a bean.
The beans themselves are also beautiful ranging for White to Black with most every color in-between. Many are speckled or veined with secondary colors.
One of the most productive beans you can grow
Scarlet Runner Beans are prolific. You will get more food than any other bean you could plant in the same amount of space. If you want to have the most food available from the plant, pick enough bean pods as soon as they are large enough to treat them like any other green bean variety. You don’t have to pick all of them at one time. Just pick what you need. It helps the vines be more productive as they will continue to replace the ones you take, while the others are maturing enough to use for drying.
The beans mature 45 to 55 days after they sprout so there is plenty of time in most areas to get plenty of young beans to snap and cook for dinner or can them, to eat later. Then you can still get plenty of other beans to dry and keep stored for use years later, if need be.
A few other things
- If you plant them, expect hummingbirds! Hummingbirds lover the flowers.
- They require full sun.
- They are pretty enough to plant in your front yard as a show plant.
- They fix nitrogen in the soil.
- They prefer well drained soil.
I hope this article has helped you to decide whether you want to plant some Scarlet Runners or not. If there is another plant you would like to learn about, or are looking for some plants with a specific characteristic, please leave a comment and I will try to get it done ASAP.
My other food foraging posts you might be interested in
Muscadines
Can you grow beans from grocery store dried beans
Purifying water with calciumhypochlorite
Foraging wild acorns
Foraging tips from wild animals
Edible Daylilies
Foraging Wild Edible Purslane
Edible Perennial Ground Nut
Fermenting Wild Greens
Food foraging plantain weed for food and medicine
Arugula a wonder food that self sows
garlic a must have for any survival garden
how to make diy garlic oil
One big beautiful camellia bloom
food foraging chicory
food foraging flowers you can eat
Pine Needle Tea
Borage
Cattails
Wild and Mock Strawberries
Seed Bombs
Clover
Fried Dandelion Flowers Recipe
Dandelions
Food Foraging 101 – part 1
Food Foraging 101 - part 2
Food Foraging 101- part 3
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Very interesting! I want some!!! I will be checking out some of the other articles you have written. All of it is my cup of tea. :)
Glad I could help! If there is any information in particular you are looking for just let me know. I will gladly write about as soon as possible.
do you suppose this bean would survive in zone 4? we get below zero temps from time to time.
You can probably grow them, but it might have to be as an annual instead of a perennial. Once in a blue moon, we reach zero around here, but it is short lived and the frost barely makes it below the surface before things start warming up. The longer it remains below freezing, the less apt you will be able to grow them as a perennial.
The trick is to make sure you have enough mulch over it to ensure the frost doesn't kill the roots. It is fine if the vines die back, but as long as the roots don't die, it will regrow next spring.
Now I am sure you could grow it as an annual plant. It is a VERY fast grower taking only about 50 or so days from the first sprout till ready to harvest. Worst case scenario is you might have to start the seeds inside while waiting on last frost to pass, but that isn't hard to do either.
just read your post it's very informative stuff you shear..plant are very beautiful it create envoirmnt safe form pollution etc..but your post is wonderful. small seed create big trees
I need to show this post to my wife. She's always playing around with landscaping out in the front of the house. I'm always trying to tell her to plant something edible. Here's proof that there are things that a both pretty AND edible. The hummingbirds may be just what's needed to convince her.
So she's like me and loves hummingbirds. Few people realize it, but growing food in your front yard is starting to be a big thing. To me, all plants are beautiful. But I am slowly reworking my entire yard to become a large portion of what I eat. Have a look at my Daylilies and Amaranth posts. Both of those are beautiful plants that most people grow them for the looks, but they are also edible. Hopefully, all of this will help her understand.