The heirloom bean list below is for Bean Club members. You can become a Bean Club member simply by ordering any of these seeds. Thereafter we will send you an annual e-newsletter to keep you up to date with the varieties available for you to grow. We will also tell you about any new ones we will be trialling. Almost all the beans below are Climbing French Beans. Recommended donation per variety £2.85. Thank you for supporting our conservation work. Please order from the end of November to mid May. NOTE that mid May we take our special beans off this page. Have a look here again every November when we will have the current year’s harvest for you to buy for sowing next season. Our seeds on this list are for serious seed-savers who are into conservation as we are. We send out one packet only of the varieties of your choice (not one packet per year, but one packet only ever per variety, which is why it is important to save your own seeds).
VERY IMPORTANT – please also see our notes below this list. Do please check these notes.
Our bean varieties are listed here from November to May. We remove the list mid May because it becomes unrealistic to have enough weeks for people to grow the plants to the seed-saving stage. If you need to order beans to grow for eating all of them, go to our ORGANIC BEAN SEED pages.
Image | Name | Description | Price | Quantity | Add to basket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Beautiful red stripy pods. For pod stage and for shelling. Prolific harvest. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Late maturing bean but worth waiting for! Really excellent flavour. Black seeded variety. | £2.85 | |||
 | Huge harvest of sweet and tender purple bean pods. Top performer! Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Huge harvest of beans for eating at pod stage and for shelling out. Dark purple pods. Lovely round pinkish seeds, a delight to shell out. Does very well whatever kind of UK summer! Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | White seeds. Flat green pods. Good flavour. | £2.85 | |||
 | Large flat green bean pods of excellent flavour. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Black seeds. Slim purple pods, good for eating young. Although the seeds are small-ish, they are great for drying and use in casseroles. Very popular variety. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Good reliable green bean. Seeds are light tan on one side and speckled on the other. Hence the name. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Unusual bicolour seeds, half white half speckled. Good harvest. Good for pods or shelling. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Large stripy purple pods for shelling only. Plump seed. | £2.85 | |||
 | Unusually long slender pencil shaped green beans. Good for pods. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Local variety from Georgia. Vigorous bean of medium height. Beautiful wine-red colour. Prolific bean of good flavoured pods. Also high yielding for shelling. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Purple/red striped pods. Large harvest. Shelling only. | £2.85 | |||
 | Maroon and white beautiful speckled seed. Good for pods and also shelling. Climbing French bean. | £2.75 | |||
 | Large stripy black and white/tan seeds. Large mottled pods. Good for pods or for shelling out the seeds. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Striped purple pods. Good for shelling only. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | A multi-purpose bean. Pick pods when young and tender and cook whole. Or leave to swell and then shell out like peas. Or can leave seeds to dry in the pods and shell out for storing for use in winter casseroles. S/C 26 | £2.85 | |||
 | For pods. Many purple pods. Tan seeds. Good harvest. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Very prolific bean with lots of very long wonderful tasting green beans. Black seeded. Our finest Runner bean variety for pods. S/C 16 | £2.85 | |||
 | Our wonderful white-flowered white-seeded Runner bean from southern Poland. Used as a butterbean substitute. The large seeds swell up and are a delight to shell out. This bean is only a shelling-out type. Dry and store for winter casseroles where they will readily absorb the flavours of a casserole. Piekny Jas in Polish. ORGANIC SEED S/C 16 | £2.85 | |||
 | Heavy crop and early into production. Bi-coloured flowers red/white. All round excellent bean. This variety has the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. S/C 16 | £2.85 | |||
 | Mother Earth kind of bean pods to feed everyone. Smallish pods but lots of them. Seeds for shelling. | £2.85 | |||
 | Very big harvest of long purple-blue pods. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Climbs straight up fast. Great green bean. Prolific. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | A great tasting bean and very prolific. Eat at pod stage. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Excellent bean for pods. Shiny round black seeds. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Climbing French bean. Lots of foliage and lots of medium sized green beans. Vey delicious. Good cropper. | £2.85 | |||
 | White seeds with wonderful texture for absorbing flavours in a casserole. Not good for pod stage. Please note that true Tarbais beans have PGI status. Ours have been grown in UK not in the Tarbes region of France. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Black and white/tan striped seed. Pods also striped. Delicate flavour. Grown for pods. | £2.85 | |||
 | Round seed, most unusual colours grey striped with purple. Quite late maturing but lots of slightly striped pods. Pod stage but usually grown for shelling. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Oval brown seeds. Large harvest. Terrific bean. For shelling or pod stage. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 | |||
 | Bicoloured seed pink and white. Lots of smallish pods. For pods or shelling. Climbing French bean. | £2.85 |
Our bean list here is special. Please make sure you really have room to grow out to the seed stage if you are growing more than one variety. Each variety needs to be planted approximately 10 metres from the next variety to prevent any chance of cross-fertilisation. Note that Runner beans need 1 km isolation distance between different varieties as they are pollinated by insects. Also it is better to grow a few varieties successfully to the seed stage. It is not just the sowing of the seeds, it is having the time to put up the canes, label the varieties, maintaining the plants through the summer, watering during dry spells, and finally harvesting properly. This all takes time – we should know! PLEASE ORDER ONLY ONE PACKET PER BEAN VARIETY (YOU MAY ORDER ANY NUMBER OF VARIETIES – but see above), and do grow on some of your bean plants for gathering, saving, and storing some of your own seed for the following year! We send out once only the variety/varieties you ask for. It is important then to look after your plants and save seed from them so that you become independent of us! When you have plenty of seed, give some away to other growers and give them our webpages information about how to grow and save seed too. Remember to label the varieties. Please order heirloom bean seed between November and mid May. Then you will get the latest-harvest seed. Our recommended sowing time is end of May which will allow the beans time to grow to maturity and set seed within the 4 summer months. We usually give approximately 26 seeds per packet and recommend two side-by-side tepee set-ups of bean plants – one tepee for eating the pods (approx. 20 plants), and a separate one next to it (same variety) just for seed-saving (approx. 6 plants). If growing more than one variety, give approx. 10 metres distance between the double-tepee set-ups. See our pages on BEAN CULTIVATION and on SEED SAVING
You may notice that we now grow mainly climbing beans rather than dwarf varieties. Nowadays many people have small gardens with limited space so we advise growing a climber to get a larger crop for the space taken up. It takes a bit longer to get to the harvest stage, but the reward is greater!
Our own seed harvest is ready by the end of November each year. We offer our bean seeds on a first-come-first-served basis as we have limited stock. Once you have grown our French bean seeds and saved some seed, you will never need to ‘refresh’ your stock of seeds. They will be true-to-type and will have adapted to your soil. Also please do not order for friends. Give them our details and let them order for themselves. This way they will know if they wish to take part in seed-saving and will have our notes to help them.
NOTE We reiterate that we are not year-on-year suppliers of the heirloom bean seeds on this list. We only send out these varieties (each variety once only!) on the understanding that some plants will be grown out for seed-saving for your future seed stock. When you have plenty of saved seed, give away your spare seeds to friends, write down for them the name of the bean variety, and ask them to grow, label, save and give away seeds themselves to others. If you are concerned about your success with seed-saving, we suggest you practise for one season with a variety from our organic bean list as we can send you these as often as you wish. Once you get the hang of growing for seed-saving, go for a special bean above. You can also have the fun of going to a Seed Swap event in the winter. Look online for your nearest. Growing your own seeds will make you friends, save you money, and prevent these old varieties from becoming extinct, so that future generations can enjoy them too. Easy to do ! See our web pages on bean cultivation and seed-saving.