Spotlight on: Scarlet Emperor Runner Bean

I have grown runner beans in my kitchen garden several times over the last ten years. Each time I enjoyed the flowers, but was disappointed by the low production of beans-- the few I got were wonderful, with a deep rich flavor, but production was sparse compared to pole beans such as Rattlesnake.
This winter the catalog description of Scarlet Emperor convinced me to include runner beans in my garden again. Well, despite a rainy spring the seeds sprouted well. During the heat wave last month there were more flowers than beans (heat can reduce bean set in runner beans), but now that nights are cool and days are warm the Scarlet Emperor is the ruler of my August garden, producing lots of deep green, rich flavored beans that are still tender even when eight inches long.  And the flowers! Every time I'm in the garden the resident female hummingbird buzzes by, protecting her beloved red runner bean blooms from all comers.

Here's the trellis full to overflowing this week:

And a  closer view of the many young beans and flowers:

And a stem of  buds and blooms -by far the showiest runner bean flowers I've grown:

Besides the runner beans, romano pole beans, trombone squash, raspberries, Hungarian wax peppers, and finally, tomatoes are yielding well. Here's a picture of today's harvest:

And lots more tomatoes coming -- I have 24 plants left after the early demise of the potato leafed heirloom.  Which, by the way, ended up producing a dozen fruit, since all the fruit  I harvested green when I pulled the plant ended up ripened on the kitchen counter to red juicy deliciousness. I still prefer my Mortgage Lifters --- I have a dozen healthy specimens full to falling over with fruit.