Snapdragon Flowers
Some Interesting Facts about Snapdragon Flowers
Snapdragon flowers are a perennial favorite of children, who enjoy pinching the blossoms to make the dragon's tiny “mouth” close and open. These blossom-laden, large flowerheads come in many different colors. The flower spikes generally open gradually from the bottom up to the top, and come in two different heights. The dwarf snapdragons only grow to about ten inches tall, but the taller varieties can grow to about eighteen to twenty-four inches. There is also a monumentally tall type developed by breeders, and it can grow up to five feet tall, but you have to put it on a stake, due to its height. One snapdragon plant can produce from six to eight spikes of blossoms over one summer season.
Snapdragon flowers are attractive as cut floral displays, and they do extremely well in front of borders and in flower beds. The flowers used to tend to drop off if the flower was cut, but the newer strains do not have that problem, and it is once again a favorite with gardeners and florists. The best environment for growing snapdragons is in an area with full sun, and soil that is well-fertilized.
If you are growing snapdragon flowers from seed, you will want to plant them indoors, about seven to nine weeks before the last frost will occur in your area. You can move the new plants to the garden as early as you normally begin planting the other flowers in your garden. They are able to withstand frost, so they can be moved outside earlier, any time of the fall for winter and spring blooming. They do best when planted from six to twelve inches apart, to allow for root growth. If you purchase young snapdragons from a garden center, they may bloom earlier than your home-grown plants do.
When your snapdragon plants are from two to four inches in height, snap off the tips of the stems if you want more snapdragon flowers on your plants. They will be shorter but there will be more of them. As the flowers get older, you can pick them freely for use in arrangements and the like. The cutting of the blooms will force your plants to make more stems which will bloom further on in your season. Snapdragons also do well if you deadhead them, which means picking off any dead blooms from the plant.
Snapdragon flowers were originally grown in the Mediterranean. They boast stems with strong spikes, and they are packed tightly with “dragons” of a good size in colors of pink, bronze, crimson, purple, yellow and white. The flowers last so long that they even sometimes hide the leaves when they are at the peak of their blooming season.