Snapdragons are not native to North America - they are native to the Mediterranean: North Africa and southern Europe,
but have naturalized to many other regions.
Depending upon where you live they may completely die off in the winter and have to be replanted each spring.
Or in really hot areas they may die off in the summer as it gets really hot.
In other areas they will grow as short lived perennials.
They come in many different colors and heights. You can varieties that grow from only 6 inches tall to 2 or 3 feet.
And pretty much every color except blue is available.
Snapdragon is a Host Plant for Buckeye butterflies
butterflies will use Snapdragons as host plants.
More Snapdragon Pictures
A really close up of a flower:
My favorite colors of snapdragons - almost red and a really bright yellow:
Where to buy
Most local nurseries should sell Snapdragons as plants in the spring and early summer. Seeds available from many
different seeds companies in all different colors and heights.
Seeds are very small, like poppy seeds. New seedlings can be fragile. Sometimes I have good luck starting from
seeds, sometimes not.
Current status of this plant in my garden (last updated: 3/09)
I have a patch of snapdragons in the front of our house. Actually they were here when we moved here!
I have started more plants however, some from seeds and some as plants I bought at a nursery.
I don't deadhead mine because I want them to keep reseeding themselves if possible.
I have seen Buckeye
butterfly caterpillars on mine a few times.
Here in the St. Louis area some of mine survive the winter, possibly due to them being planted close to the
house and somewhat protected from frost.
The Scrophulariaceae/Figwort Family
This family consists mostly of herbs and some shrubs usually with nice flowers.
It includes 190 genera and 4000 species.
From the U. S. Department of Agriculture:
|Kingdom: || Plantae - Plants|
|Subkingdom: || Tracheobionta - Vascular plants|
|Superdivision: || Spermatophyta - Seed plants|
|Division: || Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants|
|Class: || Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons|
|Subclass: || Asteridae |
|Order: ||Scrophulariales |
|Family: || Scrophulariaceae – Figwort family|
|Genus: || Antirrhinum L. – snapdragon|
|Species: || Antirrhinum majus L. – garden snapdragon|
More information about Antirrhinum majus can be found at the
Missouri Botanical Garden
site and at Wikipedia.
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