🫘 Christmas Lima Bean
What it looks like
No verified photo of ‘Christmas Lima Bean’ itself was found, so the pictures below show the species — the same plant, photographed generally.
Why this variety
Christmas Lima is the show-off of the lima world: huge beans, white splashed with maroon and chestnut markings, like a bean dressed for a party. It is an old pole heirloom, and the markings are not just pretty — they make the variety unmistakable in a seed swap and unmistakable on the plate, where the cooked beans turn a rich brown and taste nutty, buttery, and almost chestnut-like.
It is also a vigorous, long-season pole vine that wants heat and time — which is exactly what a Florida garden offers. Christmas Lima takes about 90 days, so it is not a quick crop; it is a commitment crop, the kind you plant in spring and brag about in fall. The payoff is a shell bean with flavor that freezer limas simply do not have.
If you have not grown the species before, start with the Lima Bean growing guide for the general picture, then come back here for what makes this variety different.
How to grow
Set up a tall, sturdy trellis before planting — Christmas Lima climbs past 10 feet. Sow about an inch deep at the trellis base, 6-8 inches apart, once soil is at least 65°F; limas are fussier about cold soil than snap beans and rot readily in cool, wet ground. In Florida, sow in spring once soil is truly warm, and again in late summer for fall harvest.
Give the vine air and room, mulch to hold moisture, and keep water steady from flowering through pod-fill. A 90-day vine needs steady water for a long time, and drought during pod-fill means small, tough beans — the opposite of what you grew this variety for.
Water & feeding
About an inch a week, steady through flowering and pod-fill, for the whole long season. Christmas Lima fixes its own nitrogen via rhizobium nodules, so skip nitrogen fertilizer. Worm castings worked in before planting supply phosphorus and micronutrients.
Common problems
[‘Lima bean pod borers and stink bugs target pods — scout as pods swell and handpick. Root-knot nematodes can trouble limas in sandy Florida soil; rotate and add organic matter. Rust and blight love humidity: water at the base, do not handle wet vines, rotate beds yearly. The long season means long exposure — scout weekly, not monthly.’]
Harvest
Pick Christmas Lima pods when plump and the beans inside are full-sized but still tender, then shell fresh — the speckled beans are the whole show, so cook them simply: simmer with a little salt and butter and let the nutty flavor speak. For dry beans, leave pods on the vine until they rattle, then shell and store; dried Christmas Limas are a pantry treasure.
Saving seeds
Christmas Lima is an old pole heirloom, so it comes true from seed — save seed from your best pods and let them dry fully before storing. The full method is in the Saving seeds section of the Lima Bean guide.