Chantilly Snapdragons, Last Summer’s MVP
Let’s keep the flower train rolling this bitterly cold January with last summer’s MVP for annuals: Butterfly Snapdragons “Chantilly” mix. These sherbet-colored beauties bloomed nonstop from early summer all the way until there was light snow on the ground! Snipping them for arrangements (like the ones seen on my Instagram below) just encouraged them to set even more buds and, of course, made the plants stockier with more side branching. These snapdragons wove in so beautifully with the verbena and zinnias in our front garden and were welcome color when everything turned to rubbish with the roses mid-season. Not to mention the bees loved them. If you decide to try them for yourself, I recommend starting them from seed several weeks before your last frost. Provide a strong light source and have patience–they take a while to get going. But when they do, it’s a veritable color party!
The seeds I used were purchased were from Renee’s Garden. I liked them so much I ordered twice as many for spring!
Gorgeous! I’ve tried growing them from seed before and failed. Maybe I should try again with more patience.
Thanks Jessica! Something I learned this last time around is that snapdragons need light to germinate. When I sowed mine, I simply pressed the seeds into the soil surface and when watering, I put my hose on a mister setting so as not to disturb the placement of the seeds. Hope that helps! 🙂
Lovely! I prefer the snappy kind of snap dragon, but these photos are making me wonder. 🙂 I’ll definitely have to plant some sort of snapdragon. My list of annual flower seeds to start keeps getting longer.
Mine, too! Where to put them all?!
I love the colours of these snapdragons. So cheery!
In all my years, I’ve only been able to keep snapdragons alive once! They were a gift year before last from our (now gone) northern home neighbor. Lemon yellow. And I kept them going for nearly 10 months here on the coast from April into February despite frost & freeze!!!
Isn’t it crazy how long they can bloom for? Can’t wait to start growing them again. 😀
Living in southern California (West LA), can I plant these in July?
Hi Natalie, I don’t have any experience growing these outside of my cold-winter region, however I did find that the seedlings prefer cooler temps. Here’s a link to the seed packet where I purchased them (from Renee’s Garden) that can give you more sowing info and here is a link to a list of when to sow specific seeds. Maybe that will help? I hope so! 🙂
Thank you! 🙂 I really appreciate your website and the pics & info you post! Thanks for getting back to me about this!