Backyard Garden Seeds · Organic Heirloom Collection
Organic Hyacinth Bean
শিম · Shim
A climber worth building a trellis for
Ships Australia-wide & internationally
Growth check
Small seed, huge climber
Twining climber
Needs sturdy support
Fast once warm
This is a genuinely vigorous vine, not a polite little climber. A loaded plant can cover 3–6 metres of fence, trellis or arbor in a single warm season, twining tightly around anything it touches. Give it something sturdy to climb before you plant — a flimsy support won't hold once it's covered in foliage and pods.
Ornamental & edible — grown for its lavender flowers, glossy purple pods, and as a traditional shim vegetable
Australia-wide
When to sow, wherever you are
Cool & Mountain
Tasmania · VIC highlands · Canberra
Temperate
Melbourne · Sydney · Adelaide · Perth
Subtropical
Brisbane · Northern NSW
Tropical
Darwin · Cairns · the Top End
Arid & Semi-arid
Alice Springs · inland WA/SA/NSW
Growing in a pot?
Any zone · any balcony
A general guide only — hyacinth bean is frost-tender everywhere in Australia, so your local frost dates should always have the final say over the exact sowing date.
Seed to harvest
What happens next
Before sowing
Soak seeds 12–24 hours in water first. This softens the hard seed coat and speeds germination considerably — unsoaked seed can take weeks longer.
Germination · 7–14 days
Sow about 2.5cm deep directly where it will grow, once the soil is warm. Keep evenly moist until seedlings appear.
Support it early
Install a sturdy trellis, fence line or arbor before the vine needs it. This is a twining climber that will happily wrap around anything nearby — give it the right thing to grab onto.
Growing on
Full sun, once-established drought tolerance, and few serious pest problems. As a legume it fixes its own nitrogen, so go easy on high-nitrogen fertiliser or you'll get lots of leaf and fewer flowers.
Flowering
Fragrant lavender-to-purple pea flowers appear in clusters and attract bees readily.
Harvest · 70–120 days
Pick pods young and tender for eating, usually from around 70 days. Left longer, pods and vines make a striking ornamental display, and mature dry pods can be saved for next season's seed.
Important: young pods must always be cooked before eating. Mature beans are more strongly flavoured and require thorough cooking (boiling, with a change of water) to be safe — never eat this plant raw.
The details
What's in the pack
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Enjoy Gardening
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