Gary! wow! LOL I would LOVE to have a few pink flamingo beans!! that is definitely something i would love to try! =)

Jayeanne

OMG, look at that color it's mesmerizing. Gary, anyone, if anyone can spare a few seeds I'd love to try them. I have an extensive list of beans in my stash maybe we could do a trade?

Annette

Annette...ck your e-mail!

Gary, thanks a million for the seed. Guys like you are what makes this website so great. That is one beautiful looking bean. Looks like I will have to enlarge my trellis this next spring. I have limited space and that is a problem for me as it shades out other space in the early spring. After the days get longer and the sun gets overhead no problem.

Luther

The results are in and the Flamingo Beans did well in SW Michigan. From 9 plants, I was able to save over 13 ounces of seed. I only picked a few early and late ones for fresh eating, and it was interesting to see the color transformation when cooked. The dried flamingo beans did not have the splitting and molding that some of my other varieties developed in the damp fall. When I checked my garden notes, I saw that I had started this variety at least 2-3 weeks later than I'd normally start pole beans. Life got busy in the late spring this year.The good production of dry beans in spite of this late start makes me confident that this variety should do even better in the future.

All of the plants had seed that matched your description. Only a few (4 beans, I think) had the colors reversed, being mostly dark. A few others had a large amount of dark striping on one side but overall were more light than dark. I was surprised to see both a dark and light seed in the same pod, and until I found another mixed pod I wasn't sure if I had seen the first correctly or not. I had expected all the seeds in a pod to be very similar but that wasn't how the dark seeds showed up.

I bought a few plastic lawn flamingos and a Beanie Baby stuffed flamingo at a resale shop. I have a display planned for a spring seed swap and think it will attract others to grow this fun bean. The plastic birds will also spark some interest early on for some flamingo beans I plan to grow at a school garden next year.....still wondering if there should be a Barbie doll tie-in there, also, or not.

So, anyway, I have had lots of fun with your new bean, Gary, and hope to eat a lot more of them next season. Thanks for the new variety. I feel privileged to have received it in a round robin seed swap last fall/winter and am glad I planted it even though it was late in the season.

This is an amazing looking bean. The color resembles the darker pink splotches on Neon Goose which is still an unstable mix.

I did not see much in the thread about eating these as snaps except that they are good when very young. Sweetquietplace, you mentioned using them at the full and semi-dry stage. Did you shell them or did you did you eat them as full beans, hull and all? Are the hulls edible even when they are starting to dry?

Full beans, shellies eaten in the hull, are my favorites and it would be great to have a full bean with this coloring. Dick

Dick, I had just a few vines and wanted to have the seeds, so I didn't have enough to cook at every stage of maturity. When I thought they were are their peak, just prior to drying, I tried a few. The hull didn't snap-break, but ripped unevenly. Some of the shellies popped out. I cooked them all together and the hulls were chewy, but not woody. I didn't have to spit out any fibers.

Every time I saw these wonderful bright beans hanging from the trellis I was reminded of the Parade of Flamingos at the old Hialeah Race Track. Right before race time, they would march 100+ flamingos across the track over to the infield lake where they would remain through the races. People would stop talking and watch the procession even if they'd seen it a hundred times before.The announcer would tell the crowd that in order to get the bright pink color on the birds they had to feed them plenty of shrimp. Does anyone else remember this?
Ann

Hi Ann. Thank you for the update. I was hoping that this remarkable bean might be tender hulled when mature. Sort of like a very decorative version of Tobacco Worm or Tennessee Cutshort. Perhaps it is best used at a less mature stage. On the other hand, even Red Eye Greasy/Fall is a bit chewy as they begin to dry and we enjoyed those in late October. Dick

Reminds me that I have a few seed and should plant them next year.

So many beans. So little time.

"So many beans. So little time."

So often said, so often true... that it should be the motto for this forum. ;-)

How tall a trellis or pole do I need to put up for them? I'm really looking forward to trying them in the coming growing season, thanks again for the trade Ann, much appreciated.

Annette

For me they need an 8ft trellis and they'll even hang over a bit. They weren't a wild,vigorous grower, but that may be because it rained every single darn day last season and never really got hot. I'll see how they act if we get a normalish summer this coming year.

Anyone care to swap for Red Eye Fall bean or Aunt Jean's or anything else? Dick

Drloyd,
I sent you an email through GW. These are fun ones to grow. Next year I'll know more about eating them!

I've been pleased to learn about eating beans mature in-the-pod and as shellies, things I have seen in some of your posts. I wasn't part of a family that ate those stages or was even aware of such cooking traditions. It seems like a very nutritious use for beans, as well as being tasty.

I use a tall trellis (10 foot teepees). For me, the growth is nearly identical to Jeminez, which means 12 foot vines in a poor year, 14 foot vines in an average year, and close to 20 foot vines in a superb (rare) year.

Dick, I believe they are still very tender and stringless in the full stage, or close to it. I've tried them in the nearly full stage. After that, it's waiting a loooooooong time to save some dry seed.

Reverse colors show up much less frequently than with Jeminez. Also, there's the one side reverse color happening. And as for seed size, most of my saved seed this year was smaller than usual (weather related?). So, you may get larger seed in your growouts.

As for a Barbie bean... well, my second pink podded snap ( no name yet) will hopefully have a large trial in 2014 to see if it's close to being stable.

Gary

Nature girl,

I don't think you know what a damp fall is REALLY like.

2011 brought me 30 days of rain (out of 34 days) in the prime bean saving time of year. Pods were like wet paper bags. It was the first year I ever had beans sprouting through the pods. Usually they just sprout a bit, inside.

Gary

"I don't think you know what a damp fall is REALLY like", we have those sometime, soooooo, being I only grow in small amounts my solution :)
Annette

Gary(tormato),

I found a few unplanted seeds from this spring. I think they were ones you send into the bean round robin swap in Fall, 2012. The seeds had darkened and look quite different than those freshly harvested this year. Have you noticed the color of flamingo bean seeds changing over time?

They darken over time, just like Jeminez. After about three years, they would look like milk chocolate, 4-5 years...dark chocolate.

Naturegirl sent me a generous amount of Flamingo seeds and I have two samples of about 16 seeds each that are available.

I will mail them to the first two who send their mailing information to me at drloyd7 at comcast.net. You well need to change the email address back to the correct format. - Dick

Crossing my fingers that this Spring will be dry enough for me to plant on time... "Flamingo" is one of the beans at the top of my list.

Zeedman,

It's likely best to germinate a few (early and indoors) and transplant them out, later.

While the DTM for snap stage is only about 4-5 days later than Jeminez, to dry pods has taken several weeks later than Jeminez, for me.

Gary

Thanks for the info, Gary. After the horrible Spring we had last year, I plan to start some transplants for all of my beans this year anyway... so "Flamingo" will have a lot of company. ;-)

Last year I got a case of 800 peat pots for growing longer season beans and for earlier starts on most of them.

I hope people got a good harvest this year. Rabbits, for the first time, did a number on my main "Flamingo " teepees.

Like the past two years, I still had 1 vine with off-colored seed. I'm still going to call it 99% stable. Anyone else have any off-colored (not reversed color) seed? And, how about off-colored pods?

One report from N.H. is 23' vines growing up the side of his house, way past the second story window. I have no idea how one would harvest them as snaps.

Gary

Mine were planted late and not in the best possible spot but so far I'm pleased with them, these pictures were taken this morning. New pods appear green mottled pink and as the days go by they're ending up the color in the second picture. I've got my fingers crossed there's enough time left to at least collect enough seed to grow again next year. Haven't eaten any yet but plan to in the next couple of days. Mine aren't anywhere near 23' but maybe 14-16 ft. if you count what flopped over after hitting the top of their strings.
First picture

Second picture

Aftermidnight, looks like you had your beans labeled right all along. Those definitely look like Flamingo beans to me. Last year I had harvested some mature pods for seed, but still had a lot that were rubbery, but not dry when frost was predicted. I pulled out the trellis and the attached vines and moved the whole works into my garage to dry for a few weeks. One never quite knows what will keep their car from fitting into the garage around our house :)

We just got back from a long trip. I haven't checked the beans carefully yet, but noticed the trellis was glowing with pink. It looked, at least from a distance, like there were lots of beans. I'll have to check more this weekend.

As long as the green (mottled pink pods) turns to yellow you have "pure seed". The pink streaks show up before the full change to yellow. If the green stays green (likely with reddish mottling) you'd have an off-type. I'll keep my fingers crossed too, because they take a long time to dry down.

Gary

The pods did turn very bright pink a couple weeks ago. Some pods are now rubbery so the seed is viable. I remember the seed as being brown but these are cream with brown streaks. - Dick

Dick here's a picture of some Flamingos I shelled yesterday, the pods were dry enough to shell.

Annette

Thank you Annette. Mine do look like that. I am pretty sure the ones I planted were more like the brown reversed ones.

I'll definitely grow these again, they were just OK for me at the snap stage but as as shelly they were, oh boy were they good.
I just finished shelling mine, the ones that were a little too immature for seed I just cooked up, tossed in melted Becel, a bit of salt and pepper, yummy. DH and I polished them off standing over the kitchen sink :).

Annette

Is there any way I could get some seeds?

I do not plan to save seeds for these as they do not like it here. Can anyone help Deeby out?

Annette,

How the 'ell do you shell them as shellies?! Do you wait until the pods are partially dry?

Dick,

If I was your source for Flamingo, it was the brown streaked ones. I send only one reversed color seed (if I have any) with the normal ones.

Deeby,

There are two ways of getting seed from me. Email me, or join the bean, pea, and legume swap that I'm hosting in the Round Robin Exchange, which also means email me. :)

Gary

Gary, the pods were partially dry a few darker patches on them, just not as dry as I like them for seed. Completely dry they shell easily, partly dry they tear but it was worth it we thought they were delicious :) When I grow them again it will be strictly for shellies.

Annette

Non-partially dry pods are not worth the effort, no matter how good they taste. Just see how long it takes to shell one, and how many pieces of the pod you wind up with. :)

Gary

That was nice of you, drlloyd. Gary, thanks ! I emailed you.

I shelled some mature Flamingo last night when I went out to pick the last of the North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cutshort for supper/dinner. I agree with Gary that they do not shell easily. I agree with Annette that they are a fine shelly. Thin skinned and tasty. - Dick

Today I relented and picked a couple gallons of hopefully mature pods. Not all are rubbery yet. Most of the rest have rotted in the rain.

That's why I grow most of my beans on poles I can stick an umbrella over them:), thankfully I had all my Flamingo picked before the heavy rain came, they were planted on twine hanging from the side of our neighbor's carport, neighbor doesn't mind he gets some of the beans.
The umbrella did the trick for my Barksdale tho.. when the rain first started they were just about ready to pick for seed, they stayed nice and dry and I got a good crop of seed once they had dried down.

Annette

Good idea. Even with this great summer I could not get Barksdale or Flamingo to fully dry outdoors. Neither are really suited for here and I do not plan to grow either again. You are farther north but we are at higher altitude and near the Cascades so nights are chilly even in mid summer.

The main goal now is to find more Appalachian beans that will do well here. - Dick

Gary, thank you !!! The seeds arrived today ! I'm just thrilled ! Thank you so much !!! : )

Gary I did end up with enough seed to offer at SSE after all. They will not want it listed as a wax bean though. It would have to be a pole snap or pole dry bean. - Dick

Dick,

I don't want to get into the logic of the SSE.

But, do they know that they list Dragon's Tongue as a bush wax bean (having purple streaks that disappear with blanching, leaving yellow), and Flamingo has the pink disappear with blanching, leaving yellow (not green)?

I believe, at times, they also list one or more wax pink tip beans?

If listing it under bean/pole/snap is what they want, fine. I'd love to hear their rationalization for it, though. :)

Gary

I have a question about growing the Flamingo Pole Beans. I live just south of Atlanta, Ga. In July the temps range from 90* F to 100*F during July and then start cooling down in mid August. I am worried about it being too hot for the beans to set in July. So my question is, what is the Days to Maturity for this Bean and will it set beans in the heat of the summer. Any suggestions when to plant them. First frost is not until Oct 28 or there about. Usually drought conditions in July.

I already have Fortex, Emerite, Rattlesnake, Bosnian and Lazy Housewife but these Flamingo Beans looked so pretty that I wanted to plant them around my pool area and did not get them in the ground early enough to beat the heat.

I just picked these for snaps after 64 days. This is my first time for Flamingo. I imagine shelly stage would be in another three weeks or so. I plan to let the rest go to maturity. I imagine your best time to plant would be in spring after the last frost date. You could gain a couple weeks by planting before then in containers.

drloyd

I have a collection of pole beans if you are interested in swapping. If you send me your email I will send you names and photos. Thanks. Marjorie