Perennial Lima Beans?

Bring that this is my first year at being successful in getting lima beans, I wasn't aware that they could possibly act like a perennial. When it came to beans, I thought you harvested them and then the bush was pau.....you pulled it out or if left, it died off on its own. So I was a bit surprised to see what my bush limas were doing.

The plants look really good, considering they were neglected. They are loaded with blooms.  

I grew 3 varieties of limas (actually 4 but the fourth hasn't bloomed yet) -- Succotash, Dixie Speckled Butterpea, and Jacksons Wonder. The Succotash was a pole type and the earliest to produce. It bloomed, produced pods, then the whole vine died back. No surprise there. The other two are bush types. They bloomed and produced pods over an extended period. Both did fine for me, so fine that I plan to continue growing them. When I had picked the last of the pods, I pulled about half the Dixie plants, but got distracted by more urgent tasks. I figured I'd go back later and clean out the greenhouse in one swoop. I finally got around to doing that this week. Surprise! The bushes look great and are heavily blooming!!!! Wow. I checked my gardening notes and noted that the Dixie variety was producing a few flowers back on Sept 19. But it wasn't a full flush of blooms. Just a tease and a hint of possibly something happening. And the Jackson Wonders weren't making new flowers at all. 

Both the Dixie Speckled Butterpea and Jacksons Wonder are now looking marvelous. I've not paid any attention to them these past 4 weeks, not even watering them. And here they sit, blooming their little heads off. Amazing!

I'm not sure what is going to happen, but I'll give the plants a chance. They'll show me what they can do. In the meantime, I gave them a long, much needed, deep drink of water.