A friend of mine gave me seeds to this plant but she didn't tell me what it was.Would someone ID it for me.Thank you so much. Retta
purple hyacinth bean vine. the flowers don't last too long...once they're done, pods will form. they are REALLY cool! they're a brilliant purple color. really, really different!! if you want to harvest seeds for next year, let the pods ripen on the vine - when they lose the vibrant color and have dried out, they're good to go. just pull them apart to get the seeds. takes a good month or so for them to ripen. if it's starting to get cold and there's danger of frost, you can cut the vine and put the stems in water inside so the pods can continue to ripen. it's best to let that happen outside if you can, tho.