VegetableBean
French Garden Yellow Fillet Bean
French Garden Yellow Fillet Bean is a heirloom bush bean that delivers the refined taste and delicate texture prized by fine dining chefs, now within reach of home gardeners. This open-pollinated variety produces tender, butter-yellow snap beans ready to harvest in just 40 to 49 days, making it one of the quickest paths to gourmet vegetables. Growing 12 to 24 inches tall in an upright, compact form, it thrives across hardiness zones 3 through 9 and adapts beautifully to containers, raised beds, and garden plots. The beans' exceptional flavor and striking appearance explain why gardeners seek it out despite its modest confidence score, and its resistance to Bacterial Blight, Powdery Mildew, and multiple R genes ensures reliable harvests.
Photo © True Leaf Market
Growing Conditions
USDA Zone
3-9
Sunlight
Full Sun
Water
Moderate
Soil
Well-drained, Fertile Loam
Growth Stats
24 in
Height
TypeUpright
Spacing
4
Plant Profile
Sunlight
Full Sun
Water
Moderate
Zones
3-9
Size
24in H x ?in W
Growth
—
Care
Moderate
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Highlights
These slender yellow beans earned their place in gourmet kitchens for a reason: their refined taste and tender snap set them apart from everyday snap beans. The aesthetic appeal is undeniable too, those golden pods standing out against the compact green foliage. Space them just 4 inches apart, and you'll have a prolific producer in remarkably quick time. Since they grow well in containers and raised beds, even gardeners with limited space can experience the prestige of growing what's long been a French culinary treasure.
Common Uses
French Garden Yellow Fillet Beans shine as a simple vegetable side dish, lightly steamed or sautéed with butter and finished with fleur de sel. Their tender snap and refined flavor make them the vegetable choice for elegant plating, where they're often served whole in small bundles. They can be blanched and chilled for composed salads, or stir-fried while still crisp. The delicate nature of these beans means they're best prepared simply to let their exceptional flavor stand on its own rather than masked in heavy preparations.
Growing Timeline
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Care Instructions
Direct Sow
Direct sow seeds into the garden once soil has warmed to at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit and all danger of frost has passed. Push seeds about 1 inch into moist soil, placing them at 4-inch intervals along rows spaced 24 inches apart. Beans will germinate in 7 to 10 days under warm conditions.
Harvesting
Pick pods when they reach about 4 to 6 inches long and still snap cleanly when bent, typically 40 to 49 days after sowing. The golden color should be bright and even, without any yellowing or toughness. Check plants every two to three days once flowering begins, as beans mature quickly and are most tender at the snap stage. Harvest regularly to encourage continued pod production throughout the season.
Growing Calendar
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Companion Planting
Pests & Diseases
Ecology & Traits
Edible
Scientific Classification
Phaseolus vulgaris
Family
Fabaceae
Genus
Phaseolus
Growth Habit
Upright
Native Status
L48 (I)PR (I)VI (I)
History & Origin
“French Garden Yellow Fillet Bean descends from a tradition of European bean cultivation where refinement of snap bean varieties became an art form in French kitchen gardens. As an open-pollinated heirloom, it represents decades of careful seed saving and selection by gardeners who valued both flavor and the elegant appearance of the golden pod. The cultivar has survived because growers consistently chose to save seed from the finest plants, preserving not just genetics but a particular standard of quality that European cooks came to expect.”