Snapdragons — beloved by the young at heart Garden How-To’s
Beautiful, easy-to-grow pollinator named 2019’s flower of the year
Do your children have a favourite plant? My grandkids love snapdragons.
What’s not to love about this traditional garden plant? Snapdragons have interesting flowers, a sweet fragrance, rainbow of colours and they are fun. Why, just saying the word snapdragon conjures memories of pinching the flowers so they would open and close, as a child. A patch of snapdragons provides not only beautiful cut flowers for adults, but a treasure for youngsters to discover in the back garden.
Each year the National Garden Bureau (NGB) selects one annual, one perennial, one bulb crop and one edible as their “year of the” crops. Plants are chosen because they are popular, easy-to-grow, widely adaptable, genetically diverse, and versatile. The NGB has named 2019 the year of the snapdragon.
The NGB offers the following interesting snapdragon facts. I’ve done a little extra research to include local sources and growing tips for Niagara gardeners.
For many gardeners, the snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) is one of those flowers that evokes memories of their parents’ or grandparents’ garden. It is a nostalgic plant that reminds us of times gone by. Tall varieties can be used as fresh cuts in floral arrangements and dwarf and medium varieties can be used in containers and garden plantings.
Snapdragons are native to the Mediterranean region and parts of the Middle East and North Africa. The genus name Antirrhinum comes from the Greek words ‘anti’ meaning like and ‘rhin’ meaning nose or snout, which describes the shape of the flowers. There are also varieties that have unique double and open flowers.
The dragon-shaped, tubular flowers come in a variety of colours including pastels and bi-colours. With the bicolours the throat is usually white and the lip of the flowers is another colour. The only flower colour that is not available is a true blue.
Although the long days of summer can enhance flowering, warm temperatures can cause flowering to really drop off and the plants may go semidormant. Once day temperatures remain in the 27 C range, flowering tends to slow down. Flowering often picks up in the fall when temperatures cool down.
When conditions are right, seedgrown snapdragons will occasionally survive our Niagara winters. These plants act as biennials and form husky plants the following spring. I’ve found snapdragons in my local garden put on their best displays in the early fall when the temperatures are cooler.
Snapdragons have a pleasant, sweet fragrance that reminds me of summer in my parent’s garden.
They make fabulous, long lasting cut flowers. When our garden was very young (think, empty) I filled the border with a crop of seed grown white Rocket snapdragons, Victoria Blue salvia and yellow calendulas. Three packets of seed provided a great show of colour well into the fall — on a shoestring budget.
Snapdragons are attractive to pollinators, including hummingbirds, bumble bees and other larger size bees. Deer and rabbits seem to leave snapdragons alone.
Snapdragons come in a range of heights from dwarf (20 cm) to tall (90 cm). Dwarf types are the most common snapdragons found at garden centres. Their compact habit makes them ideal for sales in packs and pots and for multiple applications in garden plantings and in containers for porch and patio. For cut flowers, choose the tall varieties, they are easy to grow from seed. Our local Stokes Seeds (www.stokeseeds.com) offers all of the seeds mentioned.
Dwarf series includes Twinny
Mix, offering exceptional garden performance, fragrant, semi-double azalea flowers and tolerance to heat and wet weather conditions. The Candy Tops Series offers dwarf fragrant plants with constant colour; they are good for containers.
Tall series include Madame Butterfly with double, Azalea like flowers (71 cm tall) and Rocket (90 cm tall) with long, strong spikes of flowers.
Award-winning snaps
Several snapdragon varieties have been chosen as All-America Selections winners. Madame Butterfly received the AAS award in 1970 for its unique double azalea type flowers. The last AAS winning snapdragon was Twinny Peach, which was the first double form snapdragon with a compact habit. It was a 2010 AAS Flower Award Winner.
Because snapdragons can tolerate cold temperatures, they are often one of the first flowers along with pansies, violas, early spring perennials and bulb crops that gardeners can plant in the spring. In the garden, the tall types should be staked as needed to prevent them from falling over and breaking. They can become top heavy because of their large flowers.
Dead-heading will encourage the plants to continue flowering. Removing old flowers can also help to prevent grey mold disease (Botrytis).
Managing water is important, especially if gardeners are growing tall types. The plants have a fibrous root system and if they don’t become established in the soil, they will fall over. Snapdragons should be fertilized like other bedding plants.
If you’re looking for flowers with multiple colours, different flower shapes and sizes, and great fragrance, you can’t go wrong planting snapdragons. Let the kids help you plant some Rocket snapdragon seeds — they are the flowers memories are made of.