Will Snapdragons Reseed?

Snapdragons are more of a cool weather flower.

Snapdragons, like many other annuals, produce seeds in the early summer that fall to the ground and start new plants. Often these will grow quickly enough to produce flowers in the early fall when the temperatures are cool again. In some areas where the winters are not so cold, the plants will not die off and you can stimulate new growth. Snapdragons are native to the Mediterranean area, where they grow in partial shady areas year-round.

Weed Lightly

If you constantly mulch heavily in your flowerbed where the snapdragons are growing, you might stifle any new seedlings that are coming up. Let the floor of your flowerbed go a little wild to encourage new snapdragon seeds to sprout. You can selectively weed when they are large enough to identify.

Second Generation Plants

Although you may get plenty of seed falling to the ground under your snapdragon plants, these seeds are a second generation and may regrow as different colors than the mother plant. Often the flowers are fertilized by a plant of a different color, and the resulting plant might be a mix of the two. The following year, these second-generation plants will have an even greater diversity of colors. Some people enjoy this wilder diversification in their flowers, while others may not like the disorganized effect.

Fertilize

Fertilize the soil by adding an inch of fresh, well-rotted compost around the plants in your flowerbeds. This will cover any seeds that fell to the ground from your snapdragons. The compost will add nutrients to the soil that the seeds need -- especially when there are already other plants competing for them, as in a flower bed.

Pruning

Prune out old flower stalks in the summer when the plants start to die back in the heat. The plant might send out a new batch of flowers to last you through the rest of the summer. In the fall, let these plants go to seed for the following spring, when you will have new flowers coming up in the same area where you planted snapdragons before.

References

• University of Kentucky Horticulture Department: Antirrhinum Majus -- Snapdragon, Common Snapdragon, Garden Snapdragon
• University of California Irvine: Incomplete Dominance