Stephen Smith

The late Robert Lobitz was a one of kind bean breeder, collector, and developer. Using many landraces and heirloom varieties he bred 96 varieties of his own breeding and left 173 varieties as numerous  hybrid seed after he passed away in 2006. I have yet to find a variety Robert named that I simply do not like or approve of. Generally speaking his beans are early in maturity, productive, and withstand cool temperatures and do not extremely hot or cold ones. Many of his beans are also very colorful and stand out with their unique patterns and colors and are bush beans. He loved his local area in Minnesota, so most of his beans honor locations in Minnesota, but are nonetheless gorgeous and delicious!

I was in contact with his brother, who took over his seed collection but cannot grow it out. He kindly sent me a vast majority of Robert's collection, so many of what will soon be posted here no one else has. These particular varieties are very limited and very rare.