[mumofstig]

Kristen:All I need now is a Dwarf French Bean, which would be more suitable for greenhouse, but which has flat pods (like Sutton's Limka [climber])

FYI ...Suttons do a dwarf french bean that's flat...it's called 'Masterpiece'

[Kristen]

Looks to be just what I am looking for, thanks.

Link : Suttons Masterpiece Dwarf French Bean

[Yorkie]

I think that climbing french beans don't have the same pollination issues and requirements as runner beans, so you may not need to resort to hand pollination

[sunshineband]

Does this help?

Medwyn Williams.The French beans are easier to grow in the sense that they are quicker from sowing to your first harvest as well as giving you no problem with flowers setting. The difference is that Runner beans need to be pollinated and the French beans are self pollinating. In simple terms, with runner beans if the pollen doesn’t set on the flower it won’t form a bean and will simply drop to the ground where as with French beans, each and every flower will always have a bean at the end of it. There are plenty of French beans to select from both climbing and dwarf as well as purple, yellow and speckled pods. They grow amazingly well in pots as well, I have grown some superb examples for my Chelsea vegetable display.

I never knew this -- thank you. As my french beans are under huge cloche it is a relief to know I don't have to hand pollinate several rows of them -- I could've sent a small child in maybe??