Growing Scarlet Runner Beans for the Flowers

Scarlet runner beans produce beautiful red blooms that attract pollinators.

Reader Contribution by Rebecca Harrold
Updated on June 17, 2025
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by Adobestock/SHARKY PHOTOGRAPHY

Start growing scarlet runner beans much more than simply an edible bean – red runner bean blooms are magnets for hummingbirds and butterflies.

We’re working toward growing and producing more and more of our own food. We’ve planted fruit trees, berry patches, herbs, and perennial and annual vegetables. Even so, we also like to plant certain species simply because they are the favorites of butterflies and hummingbirds, and we like to have these creatures flitting through our garden. Yes, these animals do provide a service by pollinating, and that is a benefit to us, but we just like to share our garden with them. We simply enjoy their presence.

We exercise organic gardening principles by building up the soil and rotating plants rather than applying fertilizers or pesticides. Insects are welcome to our garden. We do lose some of our harvest to the more pesky insects, but the damage is minimal because these pests are kept in check by the predaceous insects that also inhabit the gardens. We attempt to work with nature rather than fight against it and imposing our own design.

The fact that wildlife chooses to visit our garden is evidence that it is a living ecosystem. Our garden is alive. It is a place where nature can play out its story of life and death. While canaries portend doom in a coal mine when they cease to sing, the zipping flight of a hummingbird or the dainty flutter of a butterfly are likewise signs of an atmosphere’s quality, though in this instance, they indicate a healthy, functioning system.

Red Runner Bean Blooms

One of our favorite wildlife plants is scarlet runner beans. The beans sport bright, red blossoms that are magnets for hummingbirds. A bean in bloom boasts the same colors as the male Ruby-throated Hummingbird – green and red. And when one is visiting the bean’s blossoms, it can be so well camouflaged that the only evidence that it is present is the whirring sound of its wings. Among the butterflies that visit the bean’s red flowers are Tiger Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails and Monarchs.

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