'King of the Garden'
102 Days — 'King of the Garden' is a very popular, old Lima bean variety. It has also been known as 'Platt's Improved', 'Platt King Lima' and 'Schwill's Monstrous Pole'. The vines can reach ten feet and are quite productive. The pods average five to eight inches long but some can reach up to nine inches. Each pod contains four to six large, cream colored beans.
Developed by Frank S. Platt (New Haven, Connecticut) from the old variety called 'Large White'. Through a process of "constant selection" for pods that produced five to six seeds each, he introduced 'King of the Garden' in 1883. Seeing the superiority of the variety, many seed companies began renaming and selling it.
'King of the Garden' has generally been used as a dry bean crop which means that it may not be the best choice for folks with shorter growing seasons. Pole-type plant. Each packet contains one ounce, which is approximately 25 seeds.
NOTE: Along with being the parent of 'King of the Garden', 'Large White' is presumed to be the progenitor of most, if not all, of the white seeded bush and pole Lima bean varieties. It was basically replaced by varieties such as 'King of the Garden', 'Henderson's Leviathan' and 'Seiberts'. It should also be noted that some seed companies and organizations are listing 'King of the Garden' and 'Henderson's Leviathan' as synonyms. They are actually individual varieties with different pedigrees.
