I've grown them. They require a long season, in my climate I can get pods for 2-3 weeks before frost, but no dry seed. They are vigorous climbers, and will need a tall pole or trellis for support. The pods are unusually flavored, not at all like green beans. You can eat the flowers & young leaves as well.

Only 3 seeds??? I hope you didn't pay much for them. Furthermore, if the seeds were sent from the tropics, they may be daylength sensitive, and would not bloom until close to the equinox (in September). You really take your chances buying seeds from eBay.

There are several commercial sources in the U.S. who sell packets with a decent quantity of seed, including Kitazawa and Baker Creek .

I've just tried growing these...not very successfully. They sprouted, but I think it was a bit too wet. I will try again this year. Thanks Stacy for providing that link

I've not grown them before, but I'm planning to this year. I got a whole packet from Pinetree- not sure how many seed, but much more than three seeds. They had it listed as Asparagus Pea rather than Winged Bean.

Chances are, Beesneeds, that you will be disappointed. Winged Bean & Asparagus Pea are sometimes used interchangeably, and the fact that that they are classified as several different species only adds to the confusion... but they identify two highly different plants.

While Asparagus Pea is closely related to Winged Bean, the two are very different. Asparagus Pea is a ground-hugging plant, has small red flowers, and has tiny pods only about 2" long. The tiny pods develop fiber very quickly, and must be picked very small to be edible... I could never gather enough for a meal, and wouldn't recommend growing them as a vegetable. It seems to prefer cool weather, as opposed to Winged Bean, which requires heat. The Asparagus Pea from Pinetree is the red-flowered, ground-hugging plant, not the larger-podded pole bean.

Well, the description did say it was the ground hugging kind, so at least the description is accurate, heheeh. And it's ok, I'm growing it more for the novelty than anything else. But good to know it's different things.