Hyacinth bean: queen of my autumn garden

The stars of my late-summer through freeze garden are always the hyacinth bean vines. I started growing these beautiful annuals a few years ago, and now make sure I have enough growing so I can see it from anywhere in the yard.

Its flowers aren't quite as fluorescent or neon as they appear to be in these photos, but they're beautiful and there are so many of them!

***

I have this growing in a few places, and one of the most prominent is on the deck:

Which gives me a good chance to watch the bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other nectar-lovers:

The bees especially love these flowers right now. Is it because there are fewer choices for blooms at this time of year?

(I had a nice video of a gray hairstreak butterfly too, but my finger was covering 1/2 of the frame so the movie was ruined. I was shooting in full sun so couldn't really see the screen to notice my mistake. Bummer.)


Besides wonderful, slightly fragrant blooms, this plant also has beautiful foliage with purple veins, purple stems, and purple buds.

Don't forget the purple pods! As the flowers start dropping the pods form, eventually forming good-sized, glossy, dark purple pea pods:

I love letting this vine grow up the deck support and onto the 2nd-floor deck railing. It gives me a perfect view of the plant, as well as the visitors.

The thing about letting this grow up onto the deck though is that it's a vine, and vines like to climb...

...and they don't care who or what gets in the way. Deck chairs get entangled regularly:

Besides the deck railing, I also have this growing on a tripod trellis near the veggie garden, and on top of the pergola:

I'm not sure if I like it better growing on the deck railing or the pergola. The deck railing gives a closer view, but the pergola gives a larger surface for the plant and blooms to spread out over. Dozens and dozens of the flower stalks standing up here make it an irresistible destination for the pollinators -- although the hummers still won't share it (and I believe they're gone now -- I only saw or heard one twice yesterday).

I'd say I love both plantings equally!

The only drawback to this vine is that it takes quite a while to start blooming. I wonder if I could speed that up by starting the seeds indoors a month or so before I would plant them outdoors? Sometimes that doesn't really help as some plants need a certain amount of heat in order to really take off. I'm going to give it a try though, as I would love to have these blooms a month or more earlier each year!

Here's a nice shot of what the deck railing looks like right now:

I really can't imagine not growing this vine ever again.

(If you're interested in some hyacinth bean seeds, please let me know in the comments or email me using the link on my "about" page. I'm going to have a zillion of these things again!)

.