Painted Lady
Grown as much for the flowers as the beans. Lighter cropping than modern runners, and worth it anyway.
Painted Lady is one of the oldest runner beans still in general cultivation, and the reason it has survived is the flower: a two tone bloom, scarlet on the standard and white on the wings, carried in long sprays right through the summer. It is also sold under names like York and Lancaster. As a crop it is honestly a little behind the modern varieties, with slightly shorter pods and a lighter yield, but as a plant to grow over an arch or along a boundary it has no real rival.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Phaseolus coccineus
- Type
- Heirloom
- Category
- Climbing, bicolour flowered
- Difficulty
- Easy, good first crop
- Hardiness
- Tender, no frost tolerance
- In Ireland
- Grows outdoors unprotected
- Germination
- 7 to 14 days at 12 to 25C
- Sowing depth
- 5cm
- Spacing
- 20cm apart, 60cm between rows
- Height
- 2.5m
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to harvest
- 12 to 16 weeks
- Harvest
- July to October
Sowing and harvest calendar for Painted Lady
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Painted Lady runner bean seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Order online
- Seedaholic Irish Heirloom specialist, long growing notes on every packet Family run in Clonbur since 2005, deep heirloom range with detailed growing notes on every packet. Visit Seedaholic , Co. Galway
- Brown Envelope Seeds Irish Organic seed grown and saved in West Cork Grows and saves its own certified organic seed in West Cork, so the varieties are already adapted to Irish conditions. Visit Brown Envelope Seeds , Co. Cork
Why it suits Ireland
Runner beans like cool damp conditions and Painted Lady is no exception, so the climate is not the difficulty. Wind is, and the same rules apply to this variety as to any 2.5m climber: strong supports, sunk deep, tied at every crossing, and sited with some shelter.
Where it earns its place in an Irish garden is in the small plot that has to do two jobs. A boundary fence covered in red and white flowers all summer is a good deal easier to justify to the rest of the household than a bare row of canes, and the bumblebees work it constantly.
It is entirely dependent on those bumblebees for pod set, so in a cold wet flowering spell it will drop flowers like any traditional runner. If reliable cropping is the priority, grow it alongside a white flowered variety rather than instead of one.
Because it is an old open pollinated variety, saved seed comes true as long as no other runner bean is flowering nearby, which is the main practical reason it has stayed in circulation for so long.
Growing notes
Sow in pots indoors from late April to mid May, 5cm deep, and plant out at the end of May or in early June once frost risk has passed. Direct sowing works from June.
Use 2.4m canes, hazel rods, an arch or netting, all driven or fixed firmly. Guide the first shoot anticlockwise around the support and it takes over from there.
Prepare the ground with plenty of compost or well-rotted manure and mulch the base, because keeping the roots damp through flowering is what determines whether you get pods.
Pick at 15 to 20cm while the pods are flat and tender. This is not a stringless variety, so a pod left a week too long will need stringing and will still be tough. Pick every two or three days and the plant flowers on until the frost.
If you want seed, mark a few pods early in the season and leave them alone. Everything else keeps getting picked.
Common questions
Is Painted Lady worth growing for the crop, or just the flowers?
Both, but be realistic. The pods are good eating if you pick them young, and the plant crops steadily over a long season, but a modern variety on the same wigwam will give you noticeably more beans. Most people who grow Painted Lady grow it because they want something productive that also looks well from the kitchen window, or because they are keeping an old variety going. On those terms it is excellent.
Can I save seed from Painted Lady?
Yes, and it is one of the varieties most worth saving, since it is an old open pollinated type that stays in circulation largely because gardeners keep it. Leave several pods on the plant to swell and dry until they rattle, shell out the mottled beans and dry them indoors before storing them airtight and cool. Grow only one runner bean variety if you want the seed to come true, because bumblebees cross them freely.
Will it grow up an arch or a wall?
It will, and that is one of the better ways to use it. Runner beans twine anticlockwise around anything roughly cane thickness, so an arch, a trellis or netting on a wall all work. Remember that a mature vine is heavy and catches wind, so whatever it climbs on has to be genuinely fixed, and an arch in an exposed Irish garden needs its feet set firmly in the ground.
More runner beans to consider
Scarlet Emperor
Heirloom / Climbing, scarlet flowered
The default runner bean, and still a good one. Early, heavy, open pollinated and sold everywhere.
Growing notes and stockistsMoonlight
AGMOpen pollinated / Climbing, white flowered
The answer to an Irish summer that keeps the bees indoors. Sets pods when a scarlet variety just drops its flowers.
Growing notes and stockistsHestia
Open pollinated / Dwarf, bicolour flowered
The runner bean for exposed Irish gardens and patios. Knee high, so there is nothing for the wind to knock over.
Growing notes and stockists