5 Best Scarlet Runner Bean Vines For Edible Landscaping for a Living Fence
Create a beautiful, edible living fence with scarlet runner beans. This guide covers the 5 best varieties for both vibrant blooms and a tasty harvest.
Staring at that chain-link fence along your property line can feel like a missed opportunity. It’s functional, sure, but it does little for your landscape or your pantry. You could plant a slow-growing hedge, but what if you could have privacy, beauty, and a harvest all in one season? This is where the humble runner bean transforms from a simple vegetable into a cornerstone of edible landscaping.
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Scarlet Runner Beans: Your Edible Living Fence
Runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) are a different beast than the common bush or pole beans you might be used to. They are true perennial vines in their native climates, but we grow them as vigorous annuals. Their superpower is rapid, dense growth, easily covering a trellis or fence in a matter of weeks.
This isn’t just about covering an eyesore. A runner bean fence is a functioning part of your garden’s ecosystem. The brilliant flowers are absolute magnets for hummingbirds and bees, boosting pollination for everything nearby, from your squash to your fruit trees. You get a visual screen, a pollinator station, and a food source, all from a single packet of seeds.
The key is choosing the right variety for your goal. Are you after the most brilliant floral display, the tastiest pods, or the best dry beans for winter stews? Each variety offers a slightly different trade-off, and knowing them upfront saves you from a disappointing harvest.
‘Scarlet Emperor’: The Classic, Vigorous Climber
When you picture a runner bean, you’re likely thinking of ‘Scarlet Emperor’. This is the old-timer, the reliable standard that has earned its place in gardens for generations. Its claim to fame is pure, unadulterated vigor and brilliant, true-scarlet flowers that hummingbirds can’t resist.
‘Scarlet Emperor’ is an excellent all-rounder. It produces long, slightly fuzzy pods that are best picked when young and tender, before the beans inside begin to swell. If you miss a few, they make a decent "shelly" bean, and if you let them mature fully, you get large, mottled purple and black beans for winter use.
This is the variety to choose if you want a no-fuss, dependable screen that delivers on all fronts. It’s not the most refined in flavor or the most unique in appearance, but it grows with an unmatched determination. If you’re new to runner beans, start here. You won’t be disappointed.
‘Painted Lady’: Bicolor Flowers for Pollinators
‘Painted Lady’ is the show-off of the runner bean world, and for good reason. Its flowers are a stunning combination of salmon-pink and white, creating a softer, more intricate look than the bold red of its cousins. This heirloom variety, dating back to the 18th century, is a top choice when aesthetics are a primary concern.
The bicolor flowers are exceptionally attractive to pollinators, often drawing an even wider variety of bees and butterflies than the solid red types. While it’s a strong grower, it’s sometimes considered slightly less rampant than ‘Scarlet Emperor’, which can be an advantage on smaller structures. The pods are tender and flavorful, well-regarded for eating fresh.
Choose ‘Painted Lady’ if your living fence is in a highly visible spot, like along a front walkway or patio. You’re trading a little bit of raw vigor for a significant boost in ornamental value. It’s the perfect marriage of a flower garden and a vegetable patch.
‘Golden Sunshine’: Bright Foliage, Tasty Pods
Most beans give you green foliage, but ‘Golden Sunshine’ breaks the mold. This variety features brilliant, chartreuse-gold leaves that light up a corner of the garden long before the first flower appears. The contrast between the bright foliage and the classic scarlet flowers is simply stunning.
This isn’t just a pretty face. ‘Golden Sunshine’ produces a good crop of tender, flavorful green pods that are best enjoyed young. The bright foliage makes the red flowers and green pods incredibly easy to spot, which simplifies harvesting and ensures you don’t miss pods until they’re tough and stringy.
The tradeoff here is that its growth can be slightly less vigorous than the green-leafed varieties, especially in very hot, intense sun where the leaves can sometimes scorch. Plant it where it gets a little afternoon shade for the best results. It’s the ideal choice for adding a unique color and texture to your edible landscape.
‘Butler’: A Stringless, Heavy-Yielding Variety
For the gardener focused purely on production, ‘Butler’ is the workhorse. Its main selling point is right in the name: it produces beans that are almost completely stringless, even when they get a bit larger. This is a massive time-saver in the kitchen and makes for a much more pleasant eating experience.
‘Butler’ is known for setting pods exceptionally well, even in the higher temperatures that can sometimes cause other runner beans to drop their blossoms. The flowers are a lovely shade of salmon, and the plants are incredibly productive, often yielding heavy flushes of beans.
This is your pick if your primary goal is stocking the freezer. What you gain in culinary convenience and yield, you might trade in ornamental firepower; the flowers are pretty, but not as dramatic as ‘Scarlet Emperor’ or ‘Painted Lady’. If you plan to eat runner beans three times a week, plant ‘Butler’.
‘Black Runner’: Heirloom Beauty, Rich Dry Beans
While all runner beans can be used for dry beans, some are better than others. The ‘Black Runner’ is a specialist. This heirloom variety produces beautiful deep red flowers followed by pods that contain striking, jet-black beans.
These beans are the real prize. When cooked, they have a rich, meaty flavor and hold their shape well, making them perfect for chilis, soups, and salads. The plant itself is a vigorous climber, providing excellent coverage for your living fence, but its true purpose is revealed at the end of the season.
Choose ‘Black Runner’ if your main interest is in a shelf-stable, homegrown source of protein. You can still eat the young pods, but you’ll want to leave most of them on the vine to mature fully. This variety asks for patience, rewarding you with a pantry full of delicious beans long after the fence has been taken down by the first frost.
Planting and Training Your Runner Bean Fence
Success with a runner bean fence starts with the support structure. These are heavy, aggressive vines; flimsy string or a weak trellis will collapse by mid-summer. Use sturdy T-posts with welded wire fencing, a cattle panel, or a well-built wooden trellis.
Plant your seeds directly in the ground after all danger of frost has passed. For a dense screen, plant seeds about 4-6 inches apart along the base of your fence. Runner beans appreciate rich soil and consistent moisture, so amend your soil with compost and apply a layer of mulch after the seedlings are established.
Once the vines are about a foot long, they’ll start looking for something to climb. This is your moment to intervene. Gently weave the young tendrils through the bottom of your fence or trellis. Guiding them early ensures they get a good start and don’t just become a tangled mess on the ground. After that, they’ll mostly take care of themselves, racing to the top.
Harvesting Pods, Shellies, and Dry Beans
How you harvest depends entirely on how you want to eat them. Understanding the three main stages is key to getting the most from your living fence.
- Young Pods: This is the "green bean" stage. Harvest pods when they are young, tender, and "snap" cleanly. The beans inside should be tiny. Frequent picking at this stage is crucial, as it signals the plant to produce more flowers and more pods.
- Shellies: If you miss a few pods, they’ll begin to bulge as the beans inside mature. At this stage, the pod is too tough to eat, but the beans inside are soft and delicious. Shell them like you would fresh peas and cook them right away.
- Dry Beans: To harvest for winter storage, leave the pods on the vine until they are dry, brown, and brittle. You should be able to hear the beans rattling inside. Pick them on a dry day and shell them, letting the beans air dry for another week indoors before storing them in an airtight jar.
A runner bean fence is more than just a clever garden project; it’s a highly efficient system that stacks functions. It builds privacy, feeds pollinators, and fills your table with fresh pods, rich shellies, and hearty dry beans. By choosing the right variety for your needs, you turn a simple fence line into one of the most productive and beautiful spaces on your property.
