One of my absolute favourite crops to grow and eat is the runner bean. Usually trouble-free, runner beans have attractive flowers and are useful for creating height and interest in the veg garden, flowering runner beans look great scrambling up tall willow obelisks in ornamental gardens too.
Browsing The Real Seed Catalogue website, I was drawn to a type of runner bean I’ve never grown before – Greek Gigantes. From the northern mountains of Greece, these beans are grown in similar conditions to our UK climate so they should do well. I expected the beans to be big, believe me, these beans are enormous!
Grown exactly the same way as runners, the buttery beans are eaten rather than whole pods. Leave pods to go brown and papery, shell beans and cook fresh straight away or dry them to store.
If you fancy having a grow yourself, grab yours at http://www.realseeds.co.uk/runnerbeans.html
The seeds look more like broad beans. You’ve reminded me that I bought a packet a little while ago. Can’t remember where I found them, but I’ve been meaning to cook them in tomatoes and herbs.
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I have some of these, although I’m yet to plant, really interested to see how they turn out!
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Those seeds look more like butter beans, don’t they! Good luck with growing them. Come back and tell us how you’re doing?
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They look fantastic. I love beans eaten fresh, rather than dried and soaked, they’re delicious.
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These look absolutely fantastic! I would order some straight away… if only I had some space left.
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I saw those in the catalogue and was severely tempted. No lovely obelisks for me but I still think the runner and French climbing beans will add beauty as well as taste to the garden.
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Currently growing about 15 plants of Greek Gigantes and they have gone up 10ft or more in some places but only have a few pods. Is this right for this bean in mid August (in London). Only about 1 in 10 flowers actually seem to fruit. The flowers are constantly being visited by pollinators so not sure what going on. Are they a much later variety than runner beans which are nearly done…
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Sowed mine 11 days ago – haven’t germinated yet – my other runners have. Did anyone else have any problems with germination?
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Meant to say Sowed in pots in a warm room.
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