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Hooray for beans and peas! They are edible, ornamental and relatively easy to grow.
New in my garden this year are the Green Beauty snow peas.
I got the seeds from Michelle who has a wonderful blog entitled From Seed to Table.
I got the seeds from Michelle who has a wonderful blog entitled From Seed to Table.
The plants have the prettiest blooms. The first blooms on my plants looked like this:
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Some time later, I noticed the blue blooms:
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Could this color change be due to a warmer temperature? We, at last, are getting high 60s and low 70s after lower temperatures in May and June. Now, there are blooms of both colors on the same plants.
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Some time later, I noticed the blue blooms:
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Could this color change be due to a warmer temperature? We, at last, are getting high 60s and low 70s after lower temperatures in May and June. Now, there are blooms of both colors on the same plants.
Cool, isn't it? They look like twins: a girl and a boy.
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I love the "marbled" foliage too:
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Crimson Flowering Fava bean (or Red-flowered fava beans) seeds also came from Michelle's California garden. This plant has a very interesting fact about it: it was revived by the Heritage Seed Library from four seeds donated by Rhoda Cutbush of Kent in 1978. The exact age of this variety is unknown, but crimson-flowered broad beans were mentioned as long ago as 1778. Isn't it fascinating? If not for Rhoda, this variety could be extinct! Gardeners, check your drawers and cabinets! You might have hidden treasures too!
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Velvet crimson blooms look very ornamental, especially those grown close to a boxwood and a fern:
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BTW, I didn't plant that fern in my kitchen garden. I think a seed from one of my plants landed close to one of the raised beds.
On the picture below: the favas from the store-bought seeds. These plants have big white flowers with a black spot on the lower petal.
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Fava beans (Broad beans, Field Bean, Bell Bean, Tic Bean), unlike the string beans, prefer cool temperatures and can be planted in early spring and fall (in no hard frost regions). I planted them at the same time as my green peas.
If snow peas and fava beans are new to my garden, the green peas are a staple here:
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Our boys love them and eat them straight from the vine. I try to grow stringless varieties which can be eaten with the pods. To support the bean and pea plants, I usually use bamboo or whatever twigs I can find. Small wire cages also work well:
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I love the "marbled" foliage too:
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Crimson Flowering Fava bean (or Red-flowered fava beans) seeds also came from Michelle's California garden. This plant has a very interesting fact about it: it was revived by the Heritage Seed Library from four seeds donated by Rhoda Cutbush of Kent in 1978. The exact age of this variety is unknown, but crimson-flowered broad beans were mentioned as long ago as 1778. Isn't it fascinating? If not for Rhoda, this variety could be extinct! Gardeners, check your drawers and cabinets! You might have hidden treasures too!
...
*
Velvet crimson blooms look very ornamental, especially those grown close to a boxwood and a fern:
...
*
BTW, I didn't plant that fern in my kitchen garden. I think a seed from one of my plants landed close to one of the raised beds.
On the picture below: the favas from the store-bought seeds. These plants have big white flowers with a black spot on the lower petal.
...
*
Fava beans (Broad beans, Field Bean, Bell Bean, Tic Bean), unlike the string beans, prefer cool temperatures and can be planted in early spring and fall (in no hard frost regions). I planted them at the same time as my green peas.
If snow peas and fava beans are new to my garden, the green peas are a staple here:
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*
Our boys love them and eat them straight from the vine. I try to grow stringless varieties which can be eaten with the pods. To support the bean and pea plants, I usually use bamboo or whatever twigs I can find. Small wire cages also work well:
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These particular plants grow not in my kitchen garden, but in the Terrace garden, the home of my turquoise bench (previous post: No Red Bench In My Garden ).
Copyright 2010 TatyanaS
Beautiful!!!!
ReplyDeleteI really didn't think of beans having such beautiful flowers! Interesting that it had a pink and blue on the same plant. Great photos as usual.
ReplyDeleteI never realised that there were so many different coloured blooms on peas.
ReplyDeleteJust like your boys I love eating the peas straight out of the pod - they are ever so sweet.
Good gracious, your boys eat veggis straight from the vine ? ! I can't get my youngest picky eater to eat them straight off his plate to save my life ! Jealous here ! lovely pictures, Gina
ReplyDeleteThose are beautiful. They look good enough to eat.
ReplyDeleteThese are really lovely.
ReplyDeleteThose pea flowers are beautiful! I will have to look for them for next year.
ReplyDeleteThose are wonderful, Tatyana, who needs sweet peas with these lovely edibles! Every bit as pretty with the bonus of good food. I love the crimson broad beans too. We grew the white with black dot kinds of couple of years ago but our spring is too short and gets hot too quickly for them, I think we got two or three beans to eat. I love the history lesson as well, thanks. :-)
ReplyDeleteFrances
Hi Tatyana; I love the idea to have the beautiful flowers and later the pods to eat. The blue and pink flowers on the same plant are very interesting. I love to grow sweetpeas. Our edible pea pods grow from simple white flowers, pretty but not extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteWhat a good selection of colourful peas.
ReplyDeleteI love bean and pea blooms, those crimson favas are beautiful. The only beans I have scrabbling around the garden at the moment are my scarlet runner beans. Didn't grow them for the beans though, really for the flowers. I am looking forward to planting a fall pea crop though.
ReplyDeleteI love those snow peas. I wonder if they would grow in my garden. I only have boring white Mammoth Melting. Ha. I was just out in the garden admiring my Blue Coco beans.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried Fava beans yet, but my boys loved eating sugar snaps when they were growing up. One of them was telling me how they would sneak out of the house while grandma was watching them and raid the pea patch. We were discussing the right time to pick the different kinds of peas...I had no idea they even knew peas were growing in the garden!!back then.
Love the beans and peas! Such pretty blooms.
ReplyDeleteFunny, we were checking out each other's blogs at the same time. I was looking at your beans and thought I'll come back later and comment.
ReplyDeleteAren't those flowers just beautiful? I do like the marbled leaves as well.
I think some slugs might have gotten my strawberries as well, not as bad as last year though.
I read somewhere that eggshells will stop slugs.
Broad beans (or as they call them in French, gourganes) are a staple in both British and French Canadian diets, so we do enjoy them at our house. With the hot spell this summer, I fear we'd have no luck growing them, but they are on my list to try. I'll keep these in mind.
ReplyDeleteThe blooms are so pretty, but they still give me the willies. I can't think of fava beans without thinking of Silence Of The Lambs! *shudder*
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures. Who knew beans could be so beautiful. Carla
ReplyDeleteI am totally in love with them. Had no idea that they were out there. Oh can't wait until next spring...
ReplyDeleteJen
God bless Rhoda for saving those seeds so you and others can plant them. I plant Chinese sugar peas in the bush form, and like to eat them right in the garden, or in a salad.
ReplyDeleteYour beans and peas are very pretty.
My beans have given me a choice of white blooms or white blooms. Oh well, maybe next year...
ReplyDeleteAnother fascnating post - really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteDon't grow them but love the flower! Like your boys, I too would love to taste them straight from the vine.
ReplyDeleteBEAUTIFUL! I didn't know beans had that many diferent colours of the flowers
ReplyDeleteHi Tatyana,
ReplyDeleteI have always enjoyed the beauty of the flowers from pea and bean plants, but I have never seen two colors on the same plant. That is so cool! I would consider growing them even if they didn't produce vegetables....they are that pretty :-)
Hi, I wanted to stop by and tell you that I am back after awhile away from blogging.
ReplyDeleteI have had horrible luck germinating the Foxglove seed and Poppy seed that you gave me but I plan on trying it again cause I still have seed from both left.
Jake
Always better straight from the plant, warm from the sun, look good too!
ReplyDeleteThe Fava bean has one of the most beautiful flowers I've seen for beans and they're heirlooms.
ReplyDeleteThat's a keeper !
Those are so very charming, not to mention they produce something good to eat! I have never eaten fava beans, but they may be worth the try just because of the beautiful flowers!
ReplyDeleteThe heirloom Favas really have such pretty blooms, so much prettier than the usual bean blooms. And the pea blooms add another lovely color to the garden.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your story about the red bench, Tatyana! I'm glad you got your turquoise bench (which I prefer to red, anyway) but I'm sure it cost a little more:)
I've never eaten fava beans with a Chianti or not. I think the blooms on the beans and peas are lovely. I wonder about the blue too. Glad you found some seeds.~~Dee
ReplyDelete