Cheery Snapdragons
Fall Gardening Tips
Choose chrysanthemums in a variety of colors now. They are hardy perennials which will brighten your garden each fall.
- When blackberry vines are done fruiting, prune back the canes which bore fruit this summer. Twine young canes around the fence or trellis.
- Garlic should be planted now for an easy crop that you can harvest next spring. Choose from Early White, Late Pink, Spanish Roja, or Elephant Garlic.
- Divide overgrown perennials that bloomed in the spring or early summer. It’s also a good time to choose and plant some new varieties.
- Apples, pears, and other fruit trees can be planted in the fall from containers to get a head start on next spring.
Snapdragons
Snapdragons are colorful bedding plants that thrive in the cool weather of fall and spring. If you plant them this month, they will begin blooming in just a few weeks and give you more flowers next spring.
Natives of the Mediterranean region, snapdragons come in almost any size—from 8-inch dwarfs to 3-foot giants. They bear flowers on spikes, with the lower flowers opening first and progressing upward. While children enjoy pinching the blossoms to make the "dragon mouth" open and close, some varieties, like open-mouthed or double azalea-flowered types, don’t "snap."
The flowers come in lavish colors, including bright yellows, rich reds, pleasing pinks, vivid oranges, and pure whites. Many have a soft, sweet fragrance, and tall varieties make excellent cut flowers. Snipping the spikes encourages additional flowering stems. Snapdragons also attract hummingbirds and bumblebees.
Popular Snapdragon Varieties
- Floral Showers Series: Low-growing (6–8 inches tall), bushy, and compact. Ideal for containers, ground covers, walkway borders, or filling gaps in mixed flower beds.
- Sonnet Mix: Medium height (18–20 inches tall) with dark red, yellow, white, pink, and orange shades. Great for planting behind shorter flowers and doesn’t require staking.
- Madame Butterfly Mix: Double azalea flowers on tall (28-inch) stems. Blooms are 1½ inches across and long-lasting, with a sturdy, branching habit.
- Rockets: Tall (3 feet) with strong spikes of colorful blooms. Best planted in the back of borders; stake in windy areas. Cutting flowers stimulates more blooms.
Care Tips
- Snapdragons prefer full sun but tolerate some shade.
- Water and feed regularly for best results.
- Remove spent flower spikes to prevent seed development, which signals the plant to stop flowering.
Whether you plant them for cut flowers or for children to enjoy, don’t let your fall garden be without snapdragons!