Jackson Wonder

Bush lima. Plants 15-19" tall. Curved pods measure 3-3.5 inches long and 0.7-0.8 inches wide. Shattering pods have 2-3 seeds. Seeds have a buff colored background and red to purple mottling. Dry limas have a sweet, buttery flavor. Hard seeded. Early to maturity than other limas and average productivity when grown in 2016 at Heritage Farm. This is a good match to the description in USDA Bulletin #109, “American Varieties of Garden Beans” from 1907. Donated to SSE in 1981 by bean collector John Withee of Lynnfield, Massachusetts and the Wanigan Associates. Withee acquired this variety from RH Shumway Seed Company in the 1970s. Shumway first listed a variety by this name in their 1933 catalog and continued to offer it until at least 1975. In “The Vegetables of New York” (by U.P. Hedrick published by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in 1928) it was stated “This variety originated with Thomas Jackson, an enterprising farmer of Atlanta, Ga. It is primarily a bean for the southern states and is supposed to be a very prolific dwarf strain of Speckled Lima or Small White.”