This forum has really slowed down of late so thought this might be of interest to other bean enthusiastics :)

I'm growing this for the first time this year and thought I'd start a thread on them. After years of searching I finally, with the help of another bean enthusiastic from across the pond I have it. There's very little information available on this particular variety, it's a pole bean, held in the Heritage Seed Library in the U.K., who gave it to them and where it came from Vancouver Island B.C.

A bit of copy and paste :).

"originating on Vancouver Island British Columbia, these beans were passed to our donor Connie Howard, when she visited Hidden Cove Lodge.They seem to thrive in the British climate, producing purple stemmed plants and green pods with a mauve tinge."

Also found this...
" from the HSL, Donated by Liza Antrim, who was given them at Hidden Cove Lodge, Vancouver Island by a lady whose family had grown them for many generations in Seattle,USA. The attractive, purple-stemmed plants produce green pods with a purple stripe along the strings. These beans seem to thrive in the British climate and have a long cropping season."

Of course this peaked my interest as this is where I live, it was grown at a lodge up island from me. I could only find one picture of the pod and it wasn't a good one. The seed is black with a brown tinge, not unlike Cherokee Trail of Tears.

The Sarah's have been germinated and are now planted out, the darkest leaved seedlings I've ever seen although Sicitalian Black Swamp comes pretty close these leaves have red veins, is this unusual?

They haven't started to climb yet so can't say if this red veining will continue, Just to be sure I sprouted some black seeded CTofT's and I'm growing a plant or two of each for comparison. As they emerge in their little pots you can see the differences, the stems and cotyledons are a different color, CTof T's are much lighter than Sarah's.

I'll come back to this thread as things develop with more details. I'd take a picture of the red veining but I'm at the stage in life if I got down close enough to get a decent picture I couldn't get up LOL. As soon as these potted seedlings are big enough I'll take a pic and post.

Annette