Snapdragon - Yellow

OP. This gorgeous flower found its way to our garden in a curious way. Jess Sandbrook, who came to a weekend course in our garden, brought me a beautiful currant plant as a gift. We planted it in our berry garden and to our surprise and delight a snapdragon germinated at the base and grew up right next to the currant. When it bloomed it was a lovely yellow, and we saved the seeds and the rest is history. After several years of growing this flower, it consistently produces yellow blooms of up to a height of 50cm. Snapdragons have a long history where they originated in rocky areas of Europe, the United States, Canada, and North Africa. Often called Antirrhinums on these shores, I grew up calling them Snapdragon and pinching the sides of their flowers to make the dragon mouth open and close. Other common names are dragon flowers and dog flower. All the common names link into the Latin name as the word "antirrhinum" comes from the Greek words anti "opposite/like", and rhis/ rhinos "nose/snout” from its resemblance to an animal's snout. The flowers were originally white or purple, but today come in all sorts of colours as they have been used since the time of Mendes and Darwin as a model species to learn about how plant breeding works. In the process, many colours have been bred. Other uses for this garden beauty other than a classic cottage garden cut flower include, using the seeds to extract edible oils, or in Russia, the leaves and flowers have been considered to have anti-inflammatory properties and have been used in poultices. A green dye has also been extracted from the flowers. Tender perennial often grown as an annual. Responds well to deadheading. Prefers full sun. Bees are the main pollinator as their flowers are hard for smaller insects to open to get at the pollen.

Sow into trays in September/October. Prick out to 4cm diagonal spacing when true leaves appear. Transplant into fertile soil at 30cm diagonal spacing when chance of frost has passed.

50 seeds.