Soil

Fertile garden soil with excellent drainage.

Position

Full sun.

Frost tolerant

Good. Where winters are mild, well-rooted plants survive one winter and bloom heavily the following spring.

Feeding

Encourage fast growth by mixing a balanced organic fertilizer into the soil before planting.

Companions

Cosmos, Salvia and Celery. Upright and uniform, snapdragons make great accent plants when grown in groups. Try a snapdragon as the upright element in a mixed container.

Spacing

Single Plants: 11" (30cm) each way (minimum)

Rows: 11" (30cm) with 11" (30cm) row gap (minimum)

Sow and Plant

When starting snapdragon seeds indoors in late winter, barely cover the seeds with moist seed starting mix. Grow the seedlings under bright lights until they are large enough to transplant outdoors. Most gardeners save time by buying snapdragons as bedding plants.

Our Garden Planner can produce a personalized calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area.

Notes

Some varieties can grow tall enough to need staking. Colors include red, orange, yellow, violet, white, pink and many bicolors.

Harvesting

Snapdragons make wonderful cut flowers. Gather stems when two-thirds of the flowers on the spike have opened. As flowers fade outdoors, snip them off with scissors to encourage reblooming.

Troubleshooting

Especially in warm, wet weather, tired snapdragons may collapse from various root rot diseases.