Magic Beans

Last Christmas, Kitty sent me some seeds from her garden. Some were unidentified. She didn't know the name of the plant, but described it for me. They are now growing like mad, but I have yet to see them bloom. Some others were her "magic beans". I'm not sure how we started calling them that, but the name seems to be sticking. I have planted magic beans myself for a few years, but mine are the New Jersey variety. They grow very nicely, but cannot compare to what they are when growing in California, where Kitty lives. (EVERYTHING grows bigger and better in California!) So she sent me some from her plants. They were at least six times bigger than any my plants produced. I put them into two big pots on my deck. They grew very fast, and no doubt will continue to grow, and hopefully will soon be draped over the railing. Today I took photos. They are just starting to bloom.


I'm sure some of you will recognize this as scarlet runner bean, although these look more like orange than scarlet. Different from those I have grown before.


I love these things. Can't wait to see just how big they will become. You may be able to tell there are some other flowers growning behind them - the tall, feathery sort of things. Those are some of the mystery plant seeds that she also sent to me.


Today I also picked up a couple of new plants that just caught my eye. I've never heard of Angelonia, but couldn't resist them. They didn't come with much information, so I don't even know how long they bloom. I hope they like it in full sun, because that's where I planted them. I wanted to see something else actually blooming, besides the marigolds. All of the seeds I planted seem to be doing very well - especially the many sunflowers and some of the squash. They are all growing like crazy. But it will take a while for them to bloom. I do have one small patch of wildflowers from last year that are blooming now - a tangle of blue and gold. And I'm very pleased to see how well my butterfly bush is doing. It's so much larger than it was last year. And my Montauk daisies are thriving, but they don't bloom until very late.

I love my flowers!