More on Magic Sproutz Secret Fortunes

There have been several people interested in further discussing the Magic Sproutz Secret Fortunes plant that I wrote about in last week's post. I have gotten email and comments asking where they can be bought and what kind of bean it is. The problem seems to be that they are not available in stores right now. Mine was bought in the summer at Dollar General for just a couple dollars. The company listed on the can is Spinmaster, which also makes Shrinky Dinks, Moonsand and other toy novelties. When I went to their website however, I could find no mention of Magic Sproutz or Secret Fortunes. Could it be that they don't sell them any more? Maybe most people were too suspicious to buy them. Or maybe they view it as a seasonal item and will sell them again in the spring.

If anyone has seen them in any stores, please comment here so others will know where to look. If you just have to get one and don't want to wait, Amazon has them for a bit more than we paid this summer. While I was looking for them on Amazon, I came across some other message bean plants as well. Here are the different ones I found:

Any of these would probably work. Or you could be like me and try to make and grow one yourself. For that we need to look in to the second question, "What kind of bean plant is the Magic Sproutz?" I found that to be a topic in The Gardener's Forum that began last spring. It went on all summer and nobody had an answer until this January 3rd where someone said she thought it was the jack bean or the sword bean, also called "Chickasaw lima bean, Brazilian broad bean, coffee bean, ensiform bean, horse bean, mole bean, go-ta-ki, overlook bean, Pearson bean, watanka, and raba de burro." She then describes it in great length. You can read it yourself. Just scroll all the way to the bottom.

I don't know if she is right, but its the best answer I've heard so far. I'm going to look for some of those seeds! Then I just have to figure out how to stamp a message on them. Something to think about since the garden outside is frozen and they are predicting 2 inches of snow tonight! Happy February, right?

Comments

[February 02, 2007 at 07:45 AM]

Wow, those would make the coolest gifts. Too bad you didn't post this before the holidays. My kids would have loved them.

[Anonymous]

I bought some at Dollar General this week... Maybe they wll have them for a little while.

[Joanna]

I found the scret fortune message plant at Dollar General also, in FL and its March, so good luck, if you have dollar general stores look for them in the area where they have planting pots. its fun to watch them grow and the grow FAST! We had a different kind last year from Easter that was in an 9terra-cotta) egg. it flowered once and formed a bean of what we do not know! The kids, my husband and i all loved to watch it grow, we still have the plant and its still growing!

[Robin]

I bought three of these at the Dollar General about a month ago. The one I kept for myself is growing like crazy. I was wondering what kind of plant it was. Your web site led me to this online store that sells this same message bean in a can as Spin Master, but branded for Disney. The site states that the plant is a Jack Bean.

[Anonymous]

i found them at toys r us they were a doller

[Lyn Mary]

I have one right now...they BRANDED the message throug hte seed cover....

[Victoria]

this products are imitation of the original version,this is patent infringement. look at the USPTO website:http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=pat&asned=NSL%20LLC
i belive that this companys will have a problems now.

[Alexandrea Garcia]

My boyfriend and I have one, its all the way to our 9 foot ceiling. It hasn't grown any flowers, like it said it does, but it has a lot of leaves. This is the second one we've done, and they both were the $ symbol.