Velour Haricot Vert Bush Bean is a striking French filet bean that arrives as deep purple to nearly black pods before transforming to vibrant green once cooked. Growing to just 16-20 inches tall on bushy plants spaced 6 inches apart, this variety produces slender 4-5 inch pods that stay tender and refined even as they mature. Ready to harvest in just 50 days, Velour earned top honors in a rigorous 2018 taste test, proving that exceptional flavor lives in these elegant beans.
Full Sun
Moderate
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20in H x 18in W
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Moderate
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Dark purple pods that seem almost black in the garden light up into brilliant green when you cook them, revealing flesh that tastes as refined as it looks. The beans stay thin and tender rather than becoming starchy and dense, a quality that separates true filet beans from common green beans. Plant these for continuous harvest: pick every other day and the plants keep producing for 3 to 4 weeks straight, rewarding attentive gardeners with weeks of meals from a single sowing.
These beans shine as a side dish where their tender texture and refined flavor can be the focus. Steam them lightly, toss with butter and fresh herbs, or serve them French-style with a simple vinaigrette. Their slender pods and lack of stringiness make them pleasant to eat whole, and the dramatic color transformation during cooking makes them visually striking on the plate.
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Direct sow seeds after your last spring frost when soil temperatures reach 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit. For continuous harvests, resow at 3-week intervals until 8-10 weeks before your anticipated fall frost.
Pick pods when the skin is taut and the beans inside are not yet visible through the pod wall, typically at 4-5 inches long. Harvest every other day once pods reach mature size; frequent picking encourages the plant to keep producing rather than setting seed. This consistent harvesting can extend productive harvest for 3 to 4 weeks. The pods will turn from their distinctive purple-black color to green upon cooking, but pick them while still visibly dark for the best tender texture.
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“Velour belongs to the haricot vert tradition, a French legacy of slender, delicate beans bred for finesse rather than yield. The catalog sources indicate this is a modern cultivar refined through taste testing rather than an heirloom with centuries of history, suggesting breeders selected specifically for the flavor and texture qualities that won the 2018 evaluation. Its purple coloring hints at ancestry in specialty bean lines, bred to stand out in the garden while delivering sophistication on the plate.”