How To Deadhead Snapdragons (Quickly & Easily!)

Snapdragons provide a vibrant splash of color to any garden, blooming beautifully in the spring and fall. These bright blooms come in almost every color imaginable, and when cared for properly, can last a long time.

Deadheading your snapdragons regularly can help encourage bright, beautiful blossoms all season long. If you want to maintain healthy blooms, deadhead about once or twice a week to avoid seed pods. Once snapdragons produce seed heads, they shift into making more seeds instead of flowers.

Deadheading can help your snapdragons thrive, making it more likely they survive the summer heat. However, it’s essential to have some know-how first to ensure you approach the process correctly.

If you are interested in Dahlias, check out How To Deadhead Dahlias In The Ground And In Pots.

Deadheading is simply when you remove aging, dead, or damaged flowers from plants to encourage new growth. If you leave old blooms on your plants, this stifles new growth and can also lead to the entire plant’s overall decline.

Regular deadheading supports the growth of new blossoms, which improves your garden’s overall appeal. It also helps you maintain a tidier-looking garden, and it ensures your snapdragons stay healthy.

Since you should deadhead a couple of times a week, it also helps you stay in touch with your garden. It becomes a habit, and since it’s relatively quick to do, it doesn’t have to be some huge chore. Therefore, you can stay updated on how your garden is growing and stay on top of things.

First, you need to determine what type of snapdragons you plan to grow. Dwarf snapdragons are typically between 4 and 9 inches tall, and short varieties are about 9 to 12 inches. These varieties are good choices for planting in containers or window boxes, or small garden beds.

There are also tall snapdragons that can grow up to 36 inches tall. However, when it comes to most gardens, you’ll likely find intermediate snapdragons. These mid-size blooms stand between 12 and 24 inches high, and you can grow them relatively easily.

Snapdragons don’t like the winter, but they thrive the rest of the year. For best results, start your snapdragons from seed indoors, roughly two months before the final frost of the season.

Then, as the weather starts to warm up, you can transplant them into your outdoor garden. Choose a place that gets full sun or only partial shade.

Also, make sure to plant snapdragons about 6 to 10 inches apart. Plus, ensure you choose a place where they can reach their full height.

Snapdragons are not heavy feeders, and they prefer neutral soil with a pH between 6.2 and 7.0. You don’t need to add fertilizer when you plant snapdragons, but you should add it once the plant flowers. You can use a standard fertilizer for this.

It’s also essential to ensure the soil drains well, as overwatering will lead to root rot and other potential issues. Snapdragons have shallow roots that can’t absorb high quantities of water at a time. However, in times when there is no rainfall, water up to about one inch of water per week.

Finally, for continuous, beautiful blooms, ensure to deadhead your snapdragons regularly.

For individual flowers, grasp them firmly between your forefinger and thumb and pinch them off from the spike. Make sure you also remove the swollen section near the base (this is the part that produces seeds). Additionally, don’t just remove dead or damaged petals; remove the whole flower.

If two-thirds or more of the flowers on a stalk are going to seed, remove the whole stem. Use your pruning shears to snip the entire stalk at its base, where it connects to the main plant. If you allow the plant to go to seed, it will stop producing blooms to produce seeds instead.

To encourage healthy, new growth, it might be necessary to cut the whole plant to about one-third of its height. This is especially the case if you notice numerous spent flowers.

Carefully bag up all of the cut leaves, stems, and flowers and dispose of them. You can also use them for compost or leave some of the dead flowers on the ground for reseeding. However, be cautious of diseased pieces.

If you know you want snapdragons in your garden again next year, allow the seeds to form and scatter them through the garden. Then, hard prune the entire plant back to about six inches to help encourage new growth.

You can also shake the seeds from the snipped flowers into bags. Then, seal and store them in a cool, dry place until next winter. You can use these seeds to plant your new snapdragons a couple of months before the final frost of winter.

Related Questions

What are some enemies of snapdragons or potential problems?

Snapdragons face a few potential challenges, one of which is watering. Snapdragons, like most plants, need water to grow, but they can’t handle too much at a time. If you overwater them, you risk mold, root rot, and other problems. However, if you don’t water them enough, the flowers wilt and die. Therefore, pay attention to the soil and only water deeply when the top two inches of soil are dry. As for animals and pests that like to make a meal of your snapdragons, there are several. Caterpillars, aphids, mites, and soil-dwelling worms are a few of the pests that pose problems for snapdragons. Also, certain birds like woodpeckers and cliff swallows like to eat the beautiful blooms. However, snapdragons are fairly deer-resistant, and rabbits don’t like them very much, so that’s a bonus!

What are good companion plants for snapdragons?

Companion planting is a great way to help certain plants and flowers thrive in your garden. Plants that make good companions for snapdragons include smaller plants like pansies. These flowers add a good splash of color in front of your snapdragons. Taller plants, like roses, could go behind your snapdragons. Basically, choose complementary flowers that work well with your snapdragon’s height. 

Can I cut snapdragon flowers for a floral arrangement?

Snapdragons make a lovely addition to floral arrangements. You can cut off a stem as soon as the flowers open so they will last longer. This won’t destroy the plant, and in fact, will help encourage more flowers to grow.