Snapdragons are among the most attractive flowering plants that have been native to our gardens for several hundred years. They are easy to care for, easy to grow yourself and bloom beautifully in the first year after planting.

Snapdragons can be brought forward from February

The seed procurement

Snapdragon seeds are available from any well stocked garden store. If you want perennial plants, you should make sure when buying that you buy the seeds for "real" snapdragons. Although F1 hybrids flower very attractively and grow nicely bushy, they are exhausted after a year and are therefore not overwintered.

Alternatively, you can harvest seeds from your own snapdragon perennials. Here, too, it is true that these are “real” snapdragons because hybrid seeds form, but these are often not germinable.

The Sowing

You can start growing snapdragons indoors as early as February. Self-harvested seeds require a cold stimulus and must be stratified. Mix the seeds with some sand and put them in a plastic bag in the fridge for a few weeks. Temperatures should be around four degrees here (check!).

Proceed as follows when sowing:

  • Fill the growing pot with special growing soil.
  • Scatter the seeds and do not cover them at all or only lightly with substrate (light germinators).
  • Gently moisten the soil with a sprayer. The seed must not be washed away.
  • Place in a bright but not full sun spot on the windowsill.
  • The optimum germination temperature is around twenty degrees.
  • To promote rapid germination, you can put a hood or a transparent film over the culture vessel.

Under these conditions, the seed often sprout after just six days. Sometimes the snapdragon takes a lot more time, so don't lose patience. As long as no mold forms or rot destroys the seeds, the first cotyledons can even appear after three weeks.

The isolation

As soon as the seedlings have formed the second pair of leaves, prick out. Each snapdragon now gets its own pot in which the plant can develop vigorously.

Fill small flowerpots with substrate and poke a hole. Carefully lift the seedlings out of the growing pots so that the small root balls are damaged as little as possible. Carefully insert the snapdragon, water and put the pots back in a warm and bright place.

tips

Do not water the seed pots too much. Rot is the most common reason for seeds not germinating. The root ball should be kept moist but not soaking wet.

Category:

Vegetable garden