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Will It Bloom?

October 11th, 2011

Early this summer I planted hyacinth beans to grow up my porch posts. I was inspired by the ones growing up a beautiful arbor in the vegetable gardens at Monticello, on my visit the previous summer.

They’ve been growing and growing, all the way up the top and then flopping back down, but there are no blooms yet. There’s not ever a bud in sight.


I don’t really mind though, they did a great job growing up and blocking the sun on one the south side of the porch. They’ll also provide lots of organic matter for the garden when they get nipped by the frost. Perhaps next year I’ll plant some morning glories in this spot instead.

Do you have any plants that aren’t quite performing as you expected this summer?

21 Comments to “Will It Bloom?”
  1. Grannie M on October 11, 2011 at 6:56 am

    I too grew hyacinth beans for the first time. I planted mine in a pot in front of a trellis in hopes of hiding the large electrical box in my yard. Mine were very slow to grow, but finally made it to the top of the trellis and I too waited and waited for blooms. Finally, about a month ago I started getting pretty purple blooms and I noticed yesterday that I now have tiny burgundy purple bean pods forming. The blooms are also getting more profuse. I am not sure why it has taken so long to get the blooms, but now that they are here I think I will try them again next year. I’m thinking the terrible hot weather we had may have been the problem and next year I will plant them somewhere where I can plant directly in the soil rather than in a pot. Maybe the end of the clothesline.

    Reply to Grannie M's comment

  2. daisy on October 11, 2011 at 8:01 am

    What a gorgeous vine! I had a morning glory that’s done very well.
    I’m having a difficult time getting my carrots to come up though!

    Reply to daisy's comment

  3. Cherise on October 11, 2011 at 8:12 am

    I have planted both hyacinth bean and morning glories. I’ve also used scarlet runner beans as some vining color. All have done well for me in partial sun areas. I would just caution you with the morning glories. The seeds they drop are tenacious. I planted them more than 3 years ago on a large arbor where they dropped seeds that were still coming up this year! I finally just gave up and left a few of them grow. They would’ve been beautiful had “Irene” not taken them down along with the 10′ x 20′ oak arbor.

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  4. Songbirdtiff on October 11, 2011 at 8:48 am

    The vines are so beautiful, I’d say that’s good enough. :)

    Reply to Songbirdtiff's comment

  5. goatpod2 on October 11, 2011 at 8:56 am

    All of our plants did pretty well this Summer though, our morning glories even came back this year.

    Amy

    Reply to goatpod2's comment

  6. Rhonda on October 11, 2011 at 9:04 am

    I visited my aunt over the weekend and of all things, she gave me some hyacinth pods! They are really pretty and thick and waxy. I’m letting them dry out. I have no idea if I’ll be able to plant them or not, but the pods are really pretty. She said she planted them a few years ago and they just keep coming back. As a matter of fact, just about everything she showed me was something that, “just popped up” Geez … if I could only have that kind of luck!

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  7. Nebraska Dave on October 11, 2011 at 9:26 am

    Susy, the plants that didn’t really perform well would be just about every thing in the garden this year. We here in Nebraska started the year with cold wet weather but by July it was triple digits almost every day and dry. My garden just didn’t deal well with that extreme bipolar weather. From past experience a really good year usually follows a really bad year so I’m expecting that next year will be a great garden year.

    Have a great fall day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

    • Susy on October 11, 2011 at 1:19 pm

      We’ve had a rough year here too, from what I hear, many folks have.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. mistresseve on October 11, 2011 at 9:47 am

    Nothing performed as well as I would have liked this year except my Serrano peppers and 3 lonely Swiss Chard that I have growing in a small kiddie pool, of all things.

    Reply to mistresseve's comment

  9. AGinPA on October 11, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    I’ve grown hyacinth beans for years. Usually they are blooming by mid-summer but this year they didn’t do nearly as well. In fact I still haven’t gotten many blooms. It must be related to the weather. Hopefully next year they will do better.

    Reply to AGinPA's comment

  10. Sandra on October 11, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    We’ve had a rough year – we got started too late I think and everything burnt up because of the heat.

    Reply to Sandra's comment

  11. Karla on October 11, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    Isn’t there one pink bloom in your second picture, near the top? Perhaps that’s just a leaf.

    Reply to Karla's comment

    • Susy on October 11, 2011 at 4:32 pm

      Sadly, it’s a maple leaf :(

      Reply to Susy's comment

  12. Karla on October 11, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    Speaking of underperformance, my sweet potatoes and Purple Majesty potatoes both gave small yields, and my melons never really recovered from being planted maybe a week earlier than they should have been.

    Reply to Karla's comment

    • Susy on October 11, 2011 at 4:33 pm

      My sweet potatoes were the same this year, I’m leaving most of them in the ground as a soil amendment instead of bothering to dig them. Figure They’ll help loosen the soil and add valuable humus, more important than me getting a few tiny roots.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  13. Jennifer Krieger on October 11, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    If you plant morning glories out here in Los Angeles you will have them forever. They reseed and reseed and never die. I like them, so it’s OK.
    I have finally achieved success with wisteria, which I have managed to kill several times; this vine has been here 5 years and just gets bigger and bigger. I recently potted a lemon tree which was drowning in the lawn where I’d originally planted it. Now it’s fine.
    But garden itself? Feh. Kale coming out my ears, but tomatoes? Measly.
    Jenny

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  14. Sincerely, Emily on October 11, 2011 at 5:15 pm

    I grew Hyacinth Bean Vine last year for the first time – WOW what a show stopper – beautiful blooms, amazing color, tons of seeds. This year I (like you) was still waiting for mine to bloom and I went out yesterday and it was blooming. Finally. Like you said, it is still a beautiful vine w/o flowers – great red stems and the red veins in the leaves. I am just so glad to see blooms finally. I will keep planting it. Emily

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  15. Misti on October 11, 2011 at 7:01 pm

    Strange! I’ve always had good luck with hyacinth beans. They are in full sun, right?

    Reply to Misti's comment

    • Susy on October 11, 2011 at 7:11 pm

      Yep, I think it was just too cool here in Sept for them to bloom. I’ll try planting them earlier next year to see what happens.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  16. Tammey on October 11, 2011 at 11:28 pm

    Suzy..I grow Hyacinth Bean Vines every year! However, the first year I planted white and purple vines and the white never bloomed and the purple did great. I store the seed in the freezer and plant the seed early sprng. One vine is hugh isn’t it? I plant mine on the fence around the swimming pool,,it is PRETTY!

    Reply to Tammey's comment

  17. Kath on October 12, 2011 at 12:48 am

    Out here in the Pacific NW we had a very late start to summer (mid-July) and many veggies that would normally do well didn’t do anything. Oddly enough though I had lots of tomatoes….

    Reply to Kath's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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