I suddenly remembered my runner beans today (korean Insuk), the roots in the ground. I figured they must be destroyed by now but - unusually for this region - the coldest weather so far was preceeded by snow falls. The snow is gone now, but the garden soil never froze really hard or deep. I dug up about half the roots and they look ok, put them in the root-cellar to be set out again in May. Covered the rest with a foot of hay as an experiment.

Has anyone grown runner beans from the perennial root? I wonder if the resulting plants are bigger and earlier than seed-grown. One would think so.