2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 22​

Epsilon - Bush Dry. Here is another cross I've been growing and just aching for it to stabalize so I can share it with as many as might want it. Epsilon, fifth letter of the Greek alphabet. Epsilon Eridani a nearby star system with exoplanets.

Epsilon Ot 1 - Bush Dry
Epsilon Ot 2 - Bush Dry

Early Stearns - Bush Dry. A Robert Lobitz named bean. I got this from Will Bonsall about 2015 and his seed had an oval dark brown patch around the eye. The rest of the seeds surface was white. Will was the only one to list ES in the SSE yearbook. After planting his bean it never looked like his bean. It took on a whole new look. It must have looked so enticing that Mandy at Mandy's Greenhouse asked me for a start of the bean. This years seed isn't nearly as pretty as it is some seasons with more white on the seed coat.


Epsilon - Bush Dry............................................Epsilon Off Type 1 - Bush Dry



Epsilon Off Type 2 - Bush Dry.........................Early Stearns - Bush Dry

 

[heirloomgal]

@Blue-Jay I don't know if it's realistic to ask you this since you have so many limas in your huge collection, but just off the top of your head, is there any that come to mind as being especially early? Or do you think that they're all, more or less, just a late maturing species?

I have gotten a few this year to try from some local vendors, none of them are special, just chatgpt recommended ones based on earliness. But I wonder if among collectors some of the more rare & special ones are knowns as earlies.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 23​

Flossie Powell - Pole Lima. This bean did very well in soil that others literally droped dead. 4 plants produced 1.25 pounds (575 G). It's an heirloom of which it's name goes back about 104 years. This bean was grown by a real Flossie Powell in the early part of the 20th century.

Forelle Fleiderfarben - Pole Dry. This bean usually does well anywhere I've planted it. Very productive. I acquired it from my bean friend in Liebenfels, Austria in 2013.


Flossie Powell - Pole Lima......................................Forelle Fleiderfarben - Pole Dry

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 24​

Fountain Pitts Allen - Pole Dry. I got this bean from a Stephen Smith of Guthrie, Kentucky. He claims to have bred this bean when he was in high school and the name of a friend was part of the inspiration for the name of this bean. It's very productive and produces nice quality beans. On my way back from Florida one winter Stephen suggested we meet just over the Kentucky border at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Clarksville, Tennessee. The meeting also consisted of his mother and father who had been in their working careers plant breeders for the Cargill Grain company. Our meeting was quite a pleasant time.

Fountain Red - Pole Dry. That's what I have been calling this red off type from Fountain Pitts Allen. Same size and shape seed, just a different color.


Fountain Pitts Allen - Pole Dry.......................Fountain Red - Pole Dry

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 24​

Frost - Pole Dry. Pre 1790 bean. Grown by both British and American gardeners in colonial times. Regarded for it's frost tollerance. To me it seems like a difficult bean to grow. Perhaps the Illinois climate is too warm for this cultivar.

Fruhegoldbohne - Bush Dry. Golden bean with the striking eye ring that is a beautiful contrast to it's seed coat. I have a frequent need to grow it more often than many of my beans as I get a good number of requests for this early gold bean. It struggled to do it's best this past summer but I think the soil had a lot to do with it.


Frost - Pole Dry................................................Fruhegoldbohne - Bush Dry

 

[Artorius]

Forelle Fleiderfarben - Pole Dry. This bean usually does well anywhere I've planted it. Very productive. I acquired it from my bean friend in Liebenfels, Austria in 2013.

I wonder if this is the same bean that Joseph Simcox called Cranberry Flieder. The seeds look identical and come from roughly the same part of Europe.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I wonder if this is the same bean that Joseph Simcox called Cranberry Flieder. The seeds look identical and come from roughly the same part of Europe.

Yes I really think this is the same bean under a different name. There is someone in Seed Savers Exchange also lists this bean as Fleiderfarben Cranberry. In the UK it's often referred to as Cranberry Lilac.

Since I had acquired this bean under the name Forelle Fleiderfarben before I knew there were other names for this bean. I just continued to maintain this bean under this name. I have a couple of packets in the freezer of Joseph Simcox's collection of this bean and he had his seed packets marked as Cranberry Fleider.

 

[Heliena]

Yes I really think this is the same bean under a different name. There is someone in Seed Savers Exchange also lists this bean as Fleiderfarben Cranberry. In the UK it's often referred to as Cranberry Lilac.

Since I had acquired this bean under the name Forelle Fleiderfarben before I knew there were other names for this bean. I just continued to maintain this bean under this name. I have a couple of packets in the freezer of Joseph Simcox's collection of this bean and he had his seed packets marked as Cranberry Fleider.

For what it's worth, I acquired this bean this year and when doing my homework I drew the same conclusion.

 

[heirloomgal]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 24​

Fountain Pitts Allen - Pole Dry. I got this bean from a Stephen Smith of Guthrie, Kentucky. He claims to have bred this bean when he was in high school and the name of a friend was part of the inspiration for the name of this bean. It's very productive and produces nice quality beans. On my way back from Florida one winter Stephen suggested we meet just over the Kentucky border at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Clarksville, Tennessee. The meeting also consisted of his mother and father who had been in their working careers plant breeders for the Cargill Grain company. Our meeting was quite a pleasant time.

Fountain Red - Pole Dry. That's what I have been calling this red off type from Fountain Pitts Allen. Same size and shape seed, just a different color.

View attachment 80118View attachment 80119
Fountain Pitts Allen - Pole Dry.......................Fountain Red - Pole Dry

That's interesting. The year I grew Fountain Pitts from Mandy I got some offtypes just like that red one.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 25​

Galloway - Pole Dry. This is one of the outcrosses that was sent to me by Will Bonsall in 2015. Sometimes I think the bean is stable then I pick another set of seeds and I get an off type from that grow out. Galloway has a small patch of pinkish tan around the eye with a bluish eye ring. Some network growers will grow this bean then send back a bean that is colored half way down the seed coat. That is not what I intended for Galloway to look like. So still not sure if this bean is stable. When it does throw off an off type it's only one and it's always the same one.

Genesis - Pole Lima- sometimes it seems that this bean might be a semi runner. I don't think I remember it climbing a lot. I get lots of requests for this bean as it is strinking in appearance. It's very productive and produces bundles of pods. I got this bean from my lima friend in Iowa in 2016 who may have gotten this bean from the USDA seed bank in Pullman, Washington.


Galloway - Pole Dry..............................................Genesis - Pole Lima