Blog: They’re supposed to be White Emergo!
My own runner beans’ failure to germinate this year led me to take drastic action and buy young plants from my local garden centre. The question is: why are my runner beans purple?
I bought a small tray of White Emergo runner beans. The white flowers cope far better with our often cool, cloudy summers. After planting over a pit enriched with the fermented vegetable stuff from Hozelock’s Bokashi Composter, I left them to it.
Purple runner beans – Pretty flowers
They grew happily away, and I noticed lilac/white flowers: “Pretty,” I thought. However, I noticed no pods forming and was, quite frankly, livid. It was only on closer inspection that I saw DEEP PURPLE pods. The reason I couldn’t see them was that they were against the black wall!
Thompson & Morgan list White Enorma as: “This heavy yielding variety produces delicate white flowers… forms long, smooth pods with a superb flavour.”
No white blooms
Sarah Raven: “Eat the pretty white bean-tasting flowers as well as the beans.” In fact, every supplier lists them as having white flowers and pictures them with green pods. Why the discrepancy?
The only purple-podded runner beans I can find online are Aeron Purple Star from Aeron Vale Allotments, and they’re not available commercially.
Purple runner beans – Mystery beans
Anyway, Aeron Purple Star has red flowers, and mine were lilac/white, and the pods are much darker. What’s going on? Well, they could have been wrongly labelled, but this was at Dobbies with a commercial label attached strongly to the pot.
They could be climbing beans – there are deep purple varieties, such as Blauhilde, but the flowers are a more uniform lilac. Any ideas, I’d be happy to hear them!
