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Sophia Beams is a lifestyle writer and editor with a special love of plants and gardening. She has worked in both print and digital publications, like Collective World and Better Homes and Gardens.
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Published on 12/08/23
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Who doesn’t love a gorgeous arrangement of snapdragons in the spring? Not only do these flowers keep their blooms for several months, but they often come in beautiful bold colors and gentle ombre varieties.
When you think of snapdragons, you might imagine them as small to mid-sized plants, usually keeping well under a foot tall. But snapdragons can grow over three feet, and this size only makes their blooms even more incredible.
If you’re looking to add the most striking flowers to your garden, you should be starting your snapdragons in winter.
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When grown in the cold outdoors, snapdragons will be encouraged to double or even triple their size come spring.
These plants are extremely hardy and do well in the cold, and low temperatures encourage them to grow much larger and taller than they would otherwise. Urban flower farm @microflowerfarm grows enormous snapdragons for their flower farm each year and recommends starting them much earlier than your local nursery might advise.
The perfect month to plant snapdragons depends on your zone’s weather, but @microflowerfarm suggests temperatures from 35-50 degrees Fahrenheit. The dragons can even survive if temps drop as low as 25 degrees, but it’s best to insulate them if a cold snap does happen.
If you’re planning on growing enormous snapdragons this year, it’s probably best to plant them in large clusters or arrange them in the back of your garden’s layout, behind other, smaller plants.
You’ll likely notice that, though the snapdragon blooms are thick at the top of the plant, the flowers don’t continue very far down; the thick stems and leaves aren’t quite as awe-inspiring as the flowers themselves, and will certainly hide other garden foliage.
When planting snapdragons from seed, they’ll take about two to three months to grow. Start them indoors during the winter and transfer them to an outdoor garden or flowerbed before the winter is over; @microflowerfarm moves them outdoors as soon as they reach two feet tall, but your planting time may vary depending on your local weather.
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Each snapdragon variety will have a different max height it can reach, so make sure you carefully research the type of snapdragon you’re planning to buy before planting it in the winter.
The dwarf snapdragon, for example, lives up to its name as it can never grow over a foot tall; the Chantilly snapdragon, however, can reach heights of up to four feet.
Snapdragons aren’t always reliable annuals, so growing a new batch indoors each winter is the best way to ensure you get the fullest, healthiest blooms. If you manage to get lucky, however, outdoor snapdragons may sow a few seeds on their own, so check for any blooms that crop up after your snapdragons’ flowers are spent.
Cutting snapdragons down to the ground once they’ve bloomed can also help encourage them to regrow the following year, but keep in mind that snapdragons might bloom twice (once in spring or summer, once in fall).
Depending on your planting zone, you might want to get started on some indoor snapdragons right away. Ordering seeds online will make sure you get the seed varieties you want, although nurseries, garden, and home goods stores will often feature popular seeds as well.
Keep in mind that the snapdragons nurseries sell are intentionally grown to be small, so even if you’re seeing miniature versions of a snapdragon variety you were planning on growing, that doesn’t necessarily mean your plants will be that size.
