Snapdragons

These cool weather annuals are favorites for kids and overwintering beneficial insects! You can select from just about any color scheme you want for vibrant color all winter.

Wait to plant them until temperatures have cooled off in November. They do prefer cool, moist soil. They do want sun to part sun, and don’t perform well in heavy shade. But you can plant them in November around deciduous trees that let in the light.

Kids love to pinch off individual flowers and play with the dragon-mouths. Pinching off the flowers just encourages the plant to produce more.

Snapdragons are annuals that usually die off with the first sincere heat. In some cases, they will hang around for another year, but consider them annuals in most gardens.

They attract beneficial insects all winter, so are a wonderful addition to fill in dormant perennials, as container accents, and to replace your summer annuals for dynamic cool weather color.

The seeds are very tiny, and can almost take a month to germinate, so it is probably best to start with transplants out in the garden. If you do plant indoors, they won’t germinate well in cold soils, so you’ll need to use a heat mat, and they also don’t germinate in cold soil outdoors.