Sunday, November 22, 2009

Pick a Pack of Purple Peas

Pulled down all my Hyacinth Bean vines today and plucked the seed pods off.

seed pods
When they are all good and dried out I will shell them and save the seeds for next year. I think I'll have enough to cover our whole block in vines!

What is a Hyacinth Bean vine you ask? It's a hearty annual climbing plant that produces lovely purple & white flowers and large shiny royal-purple pods that turn magenta-hued with time.
flowersflowers and pods
It's a very strong vine but needs support to climb; it can't climb up a wall on its own like an ivy would. We grow them up around the columns of our front porch, adding twine as necessary to support them, until they reach the top where we string more twine and let them grow horizontally 'til they meet in the middle.
Purple Pea Vines - mid-September
I love our purple pea vines.

4 comments:

Jackie said...

That's a really pretty plant! Awesome that you are going to grow more from seed. Jackie

moeart.blogspot.com said...

that top picture is of seeds? Look suspiciously like clay to me. :D

ColsCreations said...

Thanks, Jackie. Our vines this year came from seeds from our '07 vines which came from our '06 vines which came from a handful of pods someone gave us! We've given seeds to half a dozen people and all report back they grew nicely. So those few pods from '06 have really multiplied and spread!

ColsCreations said...

>>that top picture is of seeds? Look suspiciously like clay to me. :D

Hee ... Could be a new use for the remaining purple-brain scraps.