Beans in the flower patch?

I always think that bean plants would get away with calling themselves ornamental.

Broad beans have flowers that remind me of bees and until we grew them I never realised just how perfumed the flowers were. We have grown both the white and red flowered varieties. The red flowered varieties still produce green beans and the flowers can be really variable ranging from pale (almost white) to deep pink.

This year we will be growing three white flowered varieties Bunyards Exhibition, Witkiem Manita and Masterpiece Green Longpod. We’ve grown all of these before so we know what to expect. We don’t sow our broad beans in autumn and so we grow Witkiem Manita as it is an early cropper.

We grew three varieties of French beans last year which gave us three different flower and bean colours. Royalty produced purple beans (although these turn green after cooking), Sungold yellow beans and Delinel green beans. This year we are just changing Delinel for Tendergreen. Just for a change really - I hope the flowers are as pretty though. 

All of then have pencil shaped beans which we prefer. Last year we grew them successionally which proved very successful.

We also grow a mix of runner bean varieties. This year we will grow Desiree which has white flowers, Lady Di and Enorma with red flowers and Painted Lady with red and white flowers. In the past we have also grown Celebration which has salmon pink flowers.

All the beans will be sown in pots in the cold greenhouse before planting out as small plants.

We grow lots of beans as they freeze really well and usually provide us with plenty of home grown vegetables throughout winter especially when conditions are bad and we can't get to the plot to harvest anything freshly.