image of Cedar Lake beans

Cedar Lake

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 80 days. Productive and early. Medium sized seed. One of the many original named bean varieties introduced by the late Robert Lobitz through the Seeds Savers Exchange yearbook.

image of Champagne beans

Champagne

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. Snaps in about 70 days. Vigorous climber and productive. 8 inch flat green stingless pods. Given to J.R. Hepler by Ernie Champagne in New Hampshire in the 1940's. J.R. Hepler father of Billy Hepler who started the Hepler Seed Company at the age of 12 first sold this variety in his catalog in 1952.

image of Charlie Tinker's Grey Ball beans

Charlie Tinker's Grey Ball

SOLD OUT

Productive bush dry bean variety originating in the U.S.A. Another variety from the bean collection of Joseph Simcox (The Botanical Explorer).

image of Cherokee Wax beans

Cherokee Wax

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. 45 to 55 days to snap stage. 90 days to first dry seed. 5 to 7 inch yellow pods. Very productive, stringless. 18 inch tall plants produces well in adverse weather. A mutation from Asgrow Valentine. Bred at the Clemson College Truck Experiment Station in Charleston, South Carolina. The original vendor was Asgrow seed in 1947.

image of Cherry Trout beans

Cherry Trout

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 82 days to first dry pods. An original named bean found in my bean garden in 1983. The seedcoat is patterned similarly to Jacob's Cattle, but displays a smaller area of red around the eye, and fewer and smaller red spots over the white background. Seed is shorter and slightly plumper.

image of Chickasaw beans

Chickasaw

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Semi-Runner/Dry. Pods up to 4.75 inches, and dry seqentially starting in 90 days. A stable outcross discovered and named by me in 1979. The original named bean I found among a grow out of the round, yellow seeded bush bean "Sulphur" obtained from John Withee's Wanigan Associates in 1978. After a second grow out the bean also segregated into another orignal bean I named Choctaw. Listed in the SSE winter yearbook in 1982.

image of China Yellow beans

China Yellow

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. A.K.A. Sulphur bean. Carried by John Withee in his Wanigan catalog in the late 1970's as Sulphur Bean. This New England heirloom dates back to before 1870. Seeds are larger than a Navy bean with a distinctive flavor. Once popular in many different countries. Their are many strains of this bean.

image of Choctaw beans

Choctaw

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Semi-Runner/Dry. Related to it's genetic relative Chickasaw. An Original named bean of mine discovered in 1979 in my Capron, Illinois bean garden and named Choctaw by me. After the 1979 growing season the distinct look of both Choctaw and Chickasaw had appeared. Reacquired this bean in 2013 from John Staples a past SSE member who was still keeping this bean. He sent me a freezer sample that had been frozen since 2006. I had listed Choctaw for the first time in the 1982 SSE winter yearbook.

image of Christmas beans

Christmas

Packet Size 12 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Large Seeded Lima. Somewhat late in producing dry seed here. I can get decent seed production in my zone 5 climate. Productive, and large seeded. This variety dates back to the 1840's. Was especially popular in the southwest. Very tolerant of a lot of heat.

image of Coach Dog beans

Coach Dog

Packet size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush dry bean grows without runners. Blossom pink. Plants grow to about 18 inches tall. Productive plants matures it's first dry pods in about 80 days. Seeds similar in appearance to Jacob's Cattle however it holds it's Jacob's Cattle look in a hot summer. Jacob's Cattle beans turn nearly solid red during a hot season. Coach Dog was once a part of John Withee's Wanigan bean collection of Lynnfield, MA.

image of Coco Rubico beans

Coco Rubico

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. First dry pods in as early as 72 days. Very productive. I grew this bean for a time in the 1980's, and originally purchased it from Le Jardin Du Gourmet who I believe imported seed from Vilmorin seedhouse in France.

image of Comtesse de Chambord beans

Comtesse de Chambord

Packet Size 50 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. Early, productive, slender green podded snaps. Dates back to early 19th century France. Acquired this version of this bean in 2012 from Two Wings Farm, B.C. Canada. Comtesse de Chambord is the seed mother of my first discovered orignal named bean known as Blue Jay. Although I don't believe this strain of CDC is Blue Jay's seed mother

image of Comtesse de Chambord 226 beans

Comtesse de Chambord (BN 226)

Packet Size 45 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. I reacquired the bean (photo on the left) from Two Wings farm in 2012, but the seed seemed smaller than I recalled in the '80's I had donated seed (picture above) to Seed Savers Exchange that was the seed mother of Blue Jay. Then during winter 2013 I requested from my donations this same version of this bean. When the seed arrived. Low, and behold a bit larger white seed the way I had remembered Blue Jay's seed mother.

image of Conserva beans

Conserva

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush snap variety. Compact bush grows without runners. Blossom white, with light green foliage. Produces oval green pods that are fleshy but not stringy and slightly bent. Spelled by German growers as Konserva. Marketed in 1925 by Samenzüchterei David Sachs or Seed Nursery of David Sachs Quedlinburg, Germany. Bred by David Sachs's company. A cross between European varieties Alpha x Saxa. David Sachs 1836-1918

image of contender beans

Contender

Packet Size 30 $5.00

Bush/Snap. Also known as Buff Valentine. Early and very productive of oval podded green snaps in about 50 days. Dry seed in about 80+ days. Healthy and very disease resistant plants. Developed at the USDA vegetable breeding lab in Charleston, South Carolina by the late Dr. Wade. Introduced to the public in 1949. Still frequently found in seed catalogs and on seed racks today.

image of Corn Planters Purple beans

Corn Planter's Purple

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole. Seneca variety. Highly productive. Beautiful pods turn dark purple as seed matures and pods begin to dry.

image of Cream Six Weeks beans

Cream Six Weeks

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry First Dry pods in about 85 days. Blossom lavender. Viney plants about 14 inches tall. Seed about the size of a navy. Short plump and cream/tan in color. Produces a profusion of 4 inch pods that wrinkle tight around it’s seed when dry, and has a blushed purplish color when plump with soft immature seed.

image of Cresnjevec beans

Cresnjevec

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry A Slovenian variety sent by a gardener in Germany during the winter of 2013. This name is also the name a village in the municipality of Slovenska Bistrica in northeastern Slovenia. It is probably the place of origin for this variety. Cresnjevec is also very productive.

image of Crow River Black beans

Crow River Black

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry A variety selected by Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Mn from a packet of bean crosses received from Dan Jason of Salt Spring Seeds in Canada during 1993.

image of Cyrus Grays beans

Cyrus Grays

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush Dry. 85 Days to first dry pods. Most bush varieties dry their entire set of pods over a period of three to four weeks. A Robert Lobitz original bean that he named and introduced through the Seed Savers Exchange year book in 2004. Named after Cyrus, Minnesota located in Pope county, and the color gray.

image of Dalmatian beans

Dalmatian

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry 90+ days for dry seed. Seeds are patterned the same as Money except the colors on this one are brighter. Productive upright plants grow without runners. Discovered in my garden and named by me in 1981. Decided to use the "ian" spelling at the end of it's name as Dalmation is a synonym name for Jacob's Cattle. The seed mother of Dalmatian was a bean called Ernie's Big Eye.

image of Dana's Soldier beans

Dana's Soldier

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Bush dry bean. 85 days to the start of dry pods. An original bean from the collection of early Seed Savers Exchange, and Wanigan Associates member the late Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. Discovered and stabilized by Mr. Dana from his bean gardens back in the 1970's. This bean is another example, and variation of the Trout or Jacob's Cattle type seed coat patterns that Ernie dearly loved.

image of Dapple Grey beans

Dapple Grey

SOLD OUT

Bush/Dry 60 to 70 days for dry seed. An early maturing variety on 12 to 18 inch plants. Possibly the variety takes it's name for it's color resemblence to the Dapple Grey horse. There is no known history of this bean.

image of Deb's Creek beans

Deb's Creek

Packet Size 15 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. An Australian variety gifted to me by my Austrian bean friend Harriet Mella. Moderate climber.

image of Deep Red Trout beans

Deep Red Trout

Packet Size 25 $5.00

Bush dry bean grows without runners. Larger trout type seeds distinguish this variety over Jacob's Cattle. Productive plants produce six inch long and half inch wide pods. Pods dry a little later than early bush dry beans varieties. Given to John Withee's Wanigan Associates by former SSE member the late Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. SSE Bean 459

image of Delano beans

Delano

Packet Size 35 $5.00

Bush dry bean grows without runners. Blossom Lavender. About 90 days to the beginning of first dry pods. Purple pods 5.25 inches long. Seeds smaller than a Navy bean. Off white with some slightly blushed with purple. An original named bean from the late Robert Lobitz that he introduced through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook for the first time in 2005.

image of Deseronto Potato beans

Deseronto Potato

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole Dry. An Abenaki nation variety given to me by a Seneca man who lives in Pennsylvania. The Bean has been grown by the Iroquois, and Seneca people of North America. Moderately climbing plants can be raised as a pole bean or on the ground as a half runner climbing bean to about 4 to 5 feet. Can be used as a thickener in soup or mashed like potatoes.

image of Dlouha Pulena Ze Smolijanu beans

Dlouha Pulena Ze Smolijanu

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole Dry. Start of first dry pods in about 100+ days. The variety was acquired in a trade with a grower who lives in the town of Drevhostic in the Czech Republic.

image of Dog beans

Dog Bean

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush Dry. Dry seed in about 90 or so days. May or may not be another strain of Jacob's Cattle although it has a similar seedcoat pattern and coloring. Areas of white and red display in a little bit different amounts on the seeds of this bean.

image of Dwarf Shield beans

Dwarf Sheild

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Semi Runner Dry. Said to be 90 days to first dry pods but was 82 days when grown here. This variety dried down it's entire set of pods in 23 days. The bean will develop yellow pods during it's growing season although it is not a wax variety. An original bean named and introduced by Robert Lobitz through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 1999. Named as the color pattern resembles that of the American indian variety the Hidatsa Shield Bean.

image of Early Vermillion beans

Early Vermillion

Packet Size 25 seeds $5.00

Bush Dry. It's earliness truely amazed me when grown here. 71 days to beginning of it's first dry pods. Then dried down it's entire pod set in just 18 days. An original bean named and introduced through Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 2004 by the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota.

image of Early Victor beans

Early Victor

Packet Size 35 seeds $5.00

Semi Runner/Dry. 76 days to beginning of first dry pods. Small pinto colored beans. One of the many beans named and introduced through Seed Savers Exchange by the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota.

image of Early Warwick beans

Early Warwick

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 75 days to beginning of dry seed. Stocky plants and heavy yields. Cool weather tolerant. Grown in Warwick, England before 1890. Acquired this one from a gardening friend in Derby, England.

image of Early Yellow Six Weeks beans

Early Yellow Six Weeks

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. Green snap pods in about 50 days 90 to dry pods. A very old variety that goes back into the 1700's. Mentioned in publications in the 1860's and said at that time to be a variety that had been around at least for a century.

image of Eden Prairie beans

Eden Prairie

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. 80 to 90 days for the beginning of dry seed. Another of the many bean originals by the Late Robert Lobitz. Marked nearly like a soldier around the eye with the addition of very fine red specks over a white background.

Eden Valley

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush Dry. Productive 19 inch tall plants produce 4 inch smooth round easy to hand shell pods. Blossom pink. 70 days to first dry pods. Then remaining pods dry sequentially over a period of about three weeks. This is one of the many Robert Lobitz legacy beans that I have worked with since 2015. The bean was a segregation out of a packet of round black, white, and brown beans that I had received from Ron Thuma of Hartford, Kansas in 2015. Named by Russ Crow in 2020.

Edogava Zurunacki Namame

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Productive variety from eastern Europe. 7 inch pods contain up to six and seven beans.

image of Emalia's Italian beans

Emelia's Italian

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. Early and productive. This bean is named in honor of the lady who brought them to Nanaimo British Columbia, Canada from Italy in 1911. Mrs. Emelia Fuller immigrated to Canada from the town of St. Peitro in the provence of Udine in Northern Italy. This bean was originally distributed as "Auntie Vi’s". Annette Barley of Nanaimo had convinced an early seed seller of the bean that Emelia’s Italian was a better tribute. Annette sent me the bean in 2016 and told me that using it as a snap bean is the only way she has used the variety.

image of Empress beans

Empress

Packet Size 10 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Lima. Large beans. 116 days this year in 2017 from time of planting to harvesting the first dry pods. The remainder of seed was harvested in the following 30 days. From the lima collection of Curt Burroughs of Memphis, Missouri. He believes it came possibly as an outcross of Christmas. Grew absolutely true to type for me.

image of Ernie's Big Eye beans

Ernie's Big eye

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Original bean from former SSE and Wanigan Associates member the late Ernest B. Dana of Etna, N.H. The bean dates back to the late '70's and was grown by John Withee's Wanigan bean network. Another variation of the Jacob's Cattle seed coat color pattern that Ernie loved so much. ("Special Note") Seed grown in my soil does not look like this, but might change back depending on your soil. The bean is soil sensitive and grown in my soil the seed tends to be mostly red with a very small amount of white.

image of Evening Moon beans

Evening Moon

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Semi-Runner/Dry. Discovered in my garden and named by me sometime around 1981. The colored area of the seed is a light flesh tone when first harvested, and will remain rather light for many years. Old seed stocks of this bean still remain in my possession from the early 80's.

image of Eye Of The Goat beans

Eye Of The Goat

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. Begins maturing dry seed in about 90 to 100 days. Said to make fairly decent snap beans when picked young. Otherwise there is no history of this bean known at this time.

image of Fagiolo Viola Di Assiago beans

Fagiolo Viola Di Assiago

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole dry. Beautiful purple bean from an Italian bean trading friend in Volpiano, Italy. Six productive plants produced nearly two pounds of beans grown here in northern Illinois. Something wonderful in beans for purple lovers.

image of Falcon beans

Falcon

Packet Size 60 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Dry seed in about 90 days. These are the tiniest bean seeds I have ever seen. Many of the seeds have a figure around the eye that looks just like a silhouette of a bird, and so crisply defined.

image of Fasold beans

Fasold

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. Productive plants. Early with long, thin, tender, stringless green pods up to 9 inches in length. I gave seeds to my neighbor and dentist. The bean became an instant hit with these people.

image of Flossie Powell Lima beans

Flossie Powell

SOLD OUT

Pole/Lima. Very productive. A planting of 4 seeds produced slightly over one pound of beans here in 2018. Dried it's entire crop of dry beans before our first killing frost in October. Introduced into the Seed Savers Exchange, in the 1980’s by Harold R. Martin of Hopkinsville, KY who got it from an aunt named Ethel Martin. Ethel Martin, in turn, received her start of seed from Flossie Powell in 1922.

image of Forelle Fliederfarben beans

Forelle Fliederfarben

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. Very productive Many rounded shaped beans acquired from European growers. The seed is similar in appearance to one grown in the U.K. called Cranberry Lilac. When grown in some soils the color can tend more towards gray. Originally acquired this bean from a grower in Austria.

image of Fort Portal Jade beans

Fort Portal Jade

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Semi-Runner/Dry. An interesting and beautiful shading of blueish green. Sourced from a gardener in Groningen, Netherlands who obtained the bean from a fellow named Guy Dirix in Belgium. The beans origin is Fort Portal, Uganda. Originally discovered and named by an American seed collector Joseph Simcox. The local people in Uganda that had grown the variety simply called it a bean.

image of Freckles beans

Freckles

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 85 days to first dry seed. Seeds are smaller than and patterned similarly to Jacobs Cattle, however white area on the seed is greater and the red spots on the white background is much finer.

image of Fruhe Goldbohne beans

Fruhe Goldbohne

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush Dry. Compact 12 inch tall plants with 4.5 inch green pods. Beautiful striking in appearance German dry bean that interprets as "Early Gold Bean. My seed was originally sourced from a bean trading friend in Austria.

image of Ganymede beans

Ganymede

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Lima. 100+ dry days. Very productive strong vigorous growing vines. I had grown this bean as far back as the early 80's. Received it from an unlisted SSE member by the name of E.P. Griggs who didn't know it's name. After seeing pictures in National Geographics magazine of the planet Jupiter and it's moon system. I named the bean after the Jovian moon Ganymede. Now after 30 years the name seems to have stuck.

image of Ga Ga Hut beans

Ga Ga Hut

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole, short climber to about six feet. Rapid maturing very productive plants produced first dry pods in about 70 days in my 2016 northern Illinois summer. Produced a second smaller flush of pods of quality dry seed in another 40 days. Native American version, of a pinto.

image of Genesis beans

Genesis

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole Lima. From the collection of Curt Burroughs of Memphis, Missouri. He acquired the bean from the USDA seed bank in Pullman Washington. Not much is known about this bean as the seed bank gave little information except upon growing in northern Illinois this summer of 2017 it grew quite well. The plants received slight shade during part of the day. Yet to be tested in a full sunlight enviornment.

image of George's beans

George's Bean

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. Sourced for me during the winter of 2013 by Harriet Mella of Austria from Deaflora seeds in Germany. An old variety from England used typically for baked beans.

image of Giant Stringless Greenpod beans

Giant Stringless Greenpod

SOLD OUT - To Be Regrown In 2024

Bush/Snap. Tall plants over two feet in height. Long pods somewhat variable, long and stringless. One of the most popularly grown snap beans of the early twentieth century. Bred by Calvin Keeney the father of the stringless bean, and introduced by Johnson & Stokes Seed Company in 1898.

image of Giele Waldbeantsje beans

Giele Waldbeantsje

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Known in the Netherlands as the Yellow Forest bean. This productive Friesian heirloom has been grown for countless generations.

  

A Bean Collectors Window - Contact: upadam@comcast.net

Header Photo By Joseph Simcox - "The Botanical Explorer"