Blauhilde is a pole bean variety that climbs 6 to 9 feet tall, producing abundant harvests in just 55 to 65 days. This European heirloom is prized for its deep purple pods that mature to black, creating a striking vertical garden feature while delivering tender beans perfect for fresh eating or drying. Growing in hardiness zones 2 through 11, it thrives in full sun with moderate water and moderate maintenance, making it accessible to gardeners across most of North America.
4
Full Sun
Moderate
2-11
108in H x 36in W
—
High
Hover over chart points for details
Blauhilde's deep purple-black pods stand out dramatically among standard green varieties, turning nearly ebony as they mature and creating an almost ornamental effect on the trellis. The variety brings improved resistance to mosaic virus, a common scourge of bean crops, giving you a fighting chance against one of the most persistent viral diseases in home gardens. At 55 to 65 days to maturity, it reaches that sweet spot between early bush beans and slower-maturing shell beans, rewarding patience with reliable, abundant harvests up a pole or tripod.
Pole beans like Blauhilde are harvested young for snapping fresh into salads and stir-fries, their tender pods delivering clean bean flavor at that prime tender stage around 55 to 65 days. They also excel when allowed to mature fully on the vine for shell beans, dried and stored for winter soups, stews, and braises where their deeper flavor develops. The abundance these vigorous vines produce means you can eat fresh for weeks and still harvest mature beans for storage, stretching a single planting across multiple seasons of use.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Plant seeds at the time of your last spring frost date directly into the soil where they will grow up their support structure. Plant along the base of your pole, stake, or tripod.
Harvest pods when they reach tender, snap stage, typically 55 to 65 days after planting, by snapping them off the vine with a quick upward flick. Continue picking regularly to encourage more flowering and pod production throughout the season. For shell beans, leave pods on the plant until they've fully matured, dried, and turned nearly black, then shell the dry beans for storage.
Enter your ZIP code to see a personalized growing calendar for this plant.
“Phaseolus vulgaris has a profound New World origin; Columbus himself introduced beans of this genus to the Mediterranean in 1493 upon returning from his second voyage, forever changing global cuisine. Blauhilde emerges from this ancient lineage as a European-selected variety, refined over generations in regions where the dramatic purple-black coloring and exceptional climbing vigor became treasured characteristics. The variety represents centuries of informal selection by gardeners who saved seed from their best performers year after year, embedding regional preferences and adapted vigor into every plant.”