Purple hyacinth bean
Purple pods and purplish-pink flowers of hyacinth beans.
* Common name: Purple hyacinth bean
* Botanical name: Lablab purpureus
* What it is: An annual vining, ornamental bean plant that produces pink-purple blossoms followed by reddish-purple pods that grow to the size and shape of limas. Leaves are heart-shaped with purplish veins and stems.
* Size: Can easily grow 8-10 feet up from direct-planted seed in a single season with support. Vigorous and beautiful!
* Where to use: Any sunny trellis or arbor. Erect netting in front of a large blank wall and these will cover it by late summer. Can reseed if beans mature and drop.
* Care: Plant transplants or seed in mid-May, have your supports in place, water and stand back. No maintenance if you’ve given them space. Yank when frost kills them. Save seeds from a few mature pods to plant next year.
* Great partner: Hot pink annuals at their feet, such as petunias or verbena.
Hyacinth beans growing up a pole at Hershey Gardens.