Phaseolus vulgaris
Origin: San Bernardo, Italy
Improvement status: Cultivar
Seeds per packet: ~15
Germination tested 11/2022: 98%
Life cycle: Annual
From the town of San Bernardo in northern Italy, this is a small bean, but it grows on mightily productive plants. It's also incredibly beautiful. The blue pigment is heat sensitive and degrades when the seeds ripen in hot weather, so seeds that ripen in hot weather will be more of a steel grey and those ripening during cooler weather will be a gorgeous sapphire blue. The color is most vivid when the beans are fresh (like Lisa Bloodnick's 'Sacre Bleu' bean, they darken as they age). Very striking. Purple flowers. Pole type. Grown by our friend Jason Andrzejewski in Columbus, Michigan.
NOTE: This is the same bean formerly known as 'Nonna Agnes Blue,' but we've determined that a new name is necessary. This bean was introduced to the US by an American who named it after his own grandmother. So since no one named Agnes had anything to do with this bean, and we don't know anything about its origin other than the town where it was found, we will henceforth refer to it as 'San Bernardo Blue.' Seed purveyors have an important responsibility to be as transparent as possible when it comes to names and stories attached to seeds.
