Young leaves of the flat red bean plant.

Well, we didn’t get three bean plants after all. The last red flat bean to germinate was a “breech” – it didn’t know which way was up and died of confusion, aided by some hungry insects.

If I were Jack, I’d be happy with this stout, strong beanstalk!

So we have just two Myanmar red flat bean plants currently growing. Since I was highly concerned that snails would snack on them, I opted to grow them in a big pot that formerly housed our loofah plants. The ready trellis was a huge selling point for me.

And here are the plants steadily winding their way upwards.

One of the pair was a much stronger plant. It had a lovely thick stem when it germinated, and grew much faster as well. Since this is a climbing bean, both plants have been happily winding their way up the poles. I reckon they should start flowering within a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see if their flowers differ from long and winged beans. Stay tuned!

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