We grow runner beans as a patio plant so that we enjoy both their lovely bright red flowers and then the delicious beans which follow. After a very shaky start, the beans have finally come into their own.
Their bright green foliage makes a strong contrast next to the flowers.
Runner beans don't necessarily have an easy time of it: if they make it through the marauding hoards of underground bugs that love to come out at night and cut through their tender young shoots when you are tucked up in bed, then there are slugs and snails to contend with. When the flowers finally appear they rely on insects for pollination, but even that is not without risk: over-enthusiastic insects can destroy the flowers ... if they aren't eaten by birds! Below, an insect at the centre of the photograph looks ominously as if it's making a meal of bean-sap.
Pellargoniums are a huge family of plants, and while I have grown all sorts of geraniums successfully, this year I decided to try regal pellargoniums. They were very expensive, and very disappointing, going steadily downhill from the day I bought them!
