Snapdragons are started very early with tiny seeds. When I tried to grow these seeds my first year, I had no idea how successful they would be or not. After starting snapdragons, growing, and harvesting for my first season, I find them entirely easy to start and grow and they are my absolute favorite for spike flowers in arrangements. Their scent is beautifully amazing, as well as they array of colors and shapes they come in.
Why Grow Your Own Snapdragons?
Snapdragons sold at most garden centers and greenhouses are for landscape production, meaning most likely the snapdragons were reproduced through cuttings, not seeds, and they are intended to grow to a shorter a height for bedding plants.
Starting snapdragons from seeds allow you the gardener to decide the varieties specifically for their height for cut flowers. I like using the Johnny’s Potomac Mix and Madame Butterfly snapdragons for my garden. These two varieties work great with succession planting. So, I plan to have two successions of snapdragons to be planted in the first week of April, 6 to 8 weeks before my last average frost, followed by multiple successions to be planted after my last average frost.
I loved using snaps in my market bouquets to where I would like to have snapdragons available to harvest at least every other week, or more than two weeks straight from one succession.
When to Start Indoors
Starting snapdragons indoors is best done at 8 to 10 weeks before planting out. Snapdragons can be planted for a spring planting, 6 to 8 weeks before the average last frost. For me, that’s the first week of April when my daffodils are in bloom. So, 8 to 10 weeks before that is about January 23 to February 6.
Snapdragons can also be planted out in the late spring planting after the average last frost date, which is mid-May for my garden. 8 to 10 weeks before my average last frost is approximately March 6 to March 20.
The varieties of snapdragons I grow can be succession planting. Succession planting is when after planting the first set of snapdragons, another set is started a few weeks later. For 2023, my goal is to succession plant snapdragons every three weeks to have harvest of snapdragons throughout the summer grow season.
Let’s say if I wanted to plant another round of snapdragons come early June, I would start those 8 to 10 weeks before that week, from March 27 to April 10.
Planting Snapdragon Seeds Indoors
Snapdragon seeds are tiny! One of the smallest seeds I have grown, similar to that of petunias and poppies. I’d love to start these in channel trays sometime, but until then I use my standard 72-cell tray for starting snapdragons. Using a toothpick dipped in saliva makes it easier to have one or two seeds per cell. I usually thin seedlings and replant in different cells if need be, so I like to sprinkle the seeds across all the cells, in the hope that a seed ends up in each cell.
To start, pre-moisten soil media. I use the all-purpose blend from Lambert, but any seed starting mix will work. Place into plug tray. Soil media should not be compacted, but it should fill each cell to the top.
Open a packet of snapdragon seeds. Packets from Johnny’s will have smaller packet that stores the seeds. It makes it easier to get all the seeds out. Dump these seeds into your non-dominate hand. Use your dominate hand to pinch and pick up a few seeds at a time. Sprinkle seeds in different cells by running your fingers together for the seeds to drop.
Do not cover seeds. Snapdragon seeds need light to germinate. Place seed tray underneath a grow light. Heat mats are optional. They will germinate without one. They’re cool flowers and overall like cooler temperatures.
Seeds will germinate after 7-14 days at 70-75°F, according to the statistics from Johnny’s Select Seeds.
Thin & Separate Seedlings
With sprinkling seeds across the surface. Some cells ended up with just one seed, while other cells, ehhh . . . ended up with six or seven. Whoops! That’s way too many per cell. But it happens. The end goal is to have just one snapdragon per cell.
Some cells have no snapdragons, so, some seedlings will need to be pulled and transplanted there.
I wait to thin seedlings until seedlings have reached their true leaf stage. Seedlings should have miniature leaves that resemble the leaves of a fully grown adult snapdragon.
Pull Snapdragons Gently
First, grasp the bottom of the snapdragon stem. Pull gently out of the soil. Sometimes if seedlings are so close, I will pull four or five out at a time. It seems that this does better for getting all the roots. This is not the case if one plant is along the left edge and another is along the right edge. Pull them out individually.
Set off to the side to transplant into an empty cell with pre-moistened soil medium.
Transplant Snapdragons into Empty Cell
Not all my plug cells have a snapdragon germinated. I need 36 plants, so I can take some from another cell that has extras.
The young snapdragon should have a strong root system with some soil medium remaining around the root. Don’t bother with cleaning that off.
Use a pencil or popsicle stick to create a hole in a new cell large enough for the snapdragon seedling. If the seedling has plenty of soil around its roots, I create a larger hole. If the seedling is rather small and is essentially just roots with a green stem and few green leaves, I make a small hole so the seedlings doesn’t drop down into the hole too far.
Place the seedling into the hole until the bottom leaf meets the level of the soil medium. Press the seed starting medium to secure the seedling in place.
Transplanting Extra Snapdragons to New Cell Tray
For any of those extra snapdragon seedlings, when there are no longer any empty cells, you can transplant to a new plug tray. I ended up having about double of what I intended, wanting 36 plants and ending up with 72. With all these extra, I could throw them out, or I could have thinned them with scissors versus pulling them out of their current cell.
Growing seedlings is a part of my way of life, not necessarily a business with time restraints. I love saving and using all my plants that I start.
With these 36 extra snapdragons, I transplant them to a newly filled plug tray.
Gather a leak-proof tray with plug trays. Pre-moisten the soil. Add the soil to the plug tray. Evenly spread out the soil and level it off the top. Use a popsicle stick to create a hole in a cell. Add the snapdragon. Press soil together to fill in hole and secure the snapdragon.
Once all 36 cells are filled, transfer to a shelf underneath a grow light.
Continue Caring for Snapdragons Indoors
Keep watering every day, or when soil dries out.
Snapdragon plants will still need fed throughout the indoor growing season. Fertilize at full strength about once a week once plants are three inches tall.
If plants start to become root bound, transplant into a larger container.
Soon enough your young snapdragons will be transformed from starting ready to be hardened off, planted outdoors, and start growing to harvest some beautiful, fragrant spike flowers.
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