Gadenin日本語Get the appCuttings are the only way to keep a plant exactly
A snapdragon grown from saved seed will not reproduce its parent, because almost every garden snapdragon is a hybrid or grows among other snapdragons that cross with it freely. If you have a plant whose color or habit you want again, the answer is a cutting. Snapdragon side shoots are among the easiest of all softwood cuttings and root in two to three weeks with no special equipment.
Take material from non flowering side shoots, which means either shoots from below the flowering spikes or new growth that appears after a hard cut back. A shoot with a flower bud on it puts its energy into the bud rather than into roots, and if you have no choice but to use one, pinch the bud out before you insert the cutting.
Late summer and early autumn is the best time, using the fresh growth that follows the midsummer cut back, because the resulting young plants have a mild autumn in which to establish. Cuttings taken in spring root just as readily but compete for space and light at the busiest time of the propagating year.
Rooted cuttings overwinter in a frost free frame or a cool bright room and go out in spring as strong plants, well ahead of anything sown from seed. They flower earlier and, because they have a proper root system from the start, they stand up to summer heat noticeably better.
- Take a shoot three to four inches (8 to 10 cm) long Choose a healthy non flowering side shoot in the morning while it is turgid. Cut it off the plant with a clean blade and keep it out of the sun; a bag in the shade is enough for the walk back.
- Trim below a leaf joint and strip the lower leaves Cut cleanly just under a node, then remove the leaves from the bottom half so no foliage will sit in the compost. Leave two or three pairs of leaves at the top.
- Insert into gritty potting mix around the pot edge Use a mix of about half compost and half perlite or sharp sand, firm the cuttings in an inch (2.5 cm) deep, and space them so no leaves touch. Water once from above to settle them.
- Keep humid, shaded and out of direct sun A clear bag over the pot on a cool bright windowsill works. Vent it daily to release condensation, and remove any cutting that goes soft or black at once before it takes the others.
- Pot up once roots show at the drainage holes Rooting takes two to three weeks. Test with a gentle tug; resistance means roots. Pot individually into a free draining compost and grow on cool and bright rather than warm.
Saving seed, and what you actually get
Seed pods form at the base of a spent spike and are unmistakable once you know them: rounded capsules that look like a small dry skull with two or three holes at the top, which is where the seed pours out. Leave a few spikes on the plant at the end of the season specifically for seed, and cut all the others out so the plant keeps flowering.
Wait until the pods are brown, dry and rattling before collecting. Cut the whole spike, hold it over a paper bag or an envelope, and tip it upside down; the seed falls out through the holes with no threshing needed. Spread it on paper for a few days to make sure it is properly dry, then store it in a paper envelope somewhere cool and dark. It stays viable for around three years.
What comes up will not match the parent. Snapdragons cross freely between neighboring plants, and seedlings from a mixed planting give a range of colors and heights, often with more of the ordinary shades and fewer of the unusual ones than the parents had. That is not a failure, and a self sown mixture is a perfectly good way to fill a border, but it is not a way to keep a particular plant.
Because the seed is dust fine, a single spike yields hundreds of seeds. Collect from two or three spikes and you have far more than you can use, so there is no reason to strip the plant, and leaving some pods to shed on the ground gives you self sown seedlings the following spring.
| Method | When | Time to a usable plant | Comes true? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Softwood cuttings | Late summer and early autumn | 2 to 3 weeks to root, plant out in spring | Yes, identical to the parent |
| Spring cuttings | Spring, from overwintered plants | 2 to 3 weeks to root, plant out the same season | Yes, identical to the parent |
| Saved seed | Collect when pods are brown and rattling | 14 to 18 weeks from sowing to flower | No, seedlings vary in color and height |
| Self sown seedlings | Appear in spring where pods shed | Flower in the same season if thinned early | No, a mixture |
| Overwintered plants | Left in place in mild regions | Flower weeks earlier the second year | Yes, the same plant continuing |
Self sown seedlings and overwintered plants
Where the ground is not disturbed, snapdragons sow themselves. Seedlings appear in spring around where the parent plants stood, and in mild regions some germinate in autumn and sit through the winter as small rosettes. They are easy to recognize once you have seen them: narrow paired leaves on a short stem, in a colony where the pods fell.
Thin them hard and early. A patch of self sown seedlings left to grow as it landed produces a hundred crowded weak plants and no decent spikes. Lift the best of them at the two true leaf stage, when the roots are still small enough to move without damage, space them properly, and discard the rest without sentiment.
Snapdragons are short lived perennials rather than true annuals, and in regions with mild winters they simply keep going. A plant cut back in autumn and left in place regrows from the crown in spring with an established root system, comes into flower weeks earlier than any spring sowing, and makes a bigger, more branched plant in its second year.
The second year is usually the best. By the third the crown is woody, the spikes get shorter, and rust tends to build up in old growth, so it is worth taking cuttings from a good second year plant and starting the cycle again rather than trying to keep it going indefinitely.
Cuttings taken from a plant that is showing rust carry the disease into the next season, however healthy the shoot looks. Take propagating material only from clean plants, and take it early in the season before rust has appeared rather than from the last growth of a tired planting.
Keeping track of what you propagated
Label cuttings with the date and the parent plant's position, not just the color. Color is the thing you will forget least; which plant in which bed it came from is what you will need if the cutting turns out to be a good one and you want more of the same next year.
Record the date you inserted cuttings and the date roots appeared. Two to three weeks is typical, but the figure for your own conditions tells you whether your propagating spot is warm enough, and it lets you plan the autumn batch so the young plants are potted before the weather turns.
Note how many cuttings you took and how many rooted. A strike rate written down for two seasons is what tells you whether to take twelve cuttings or twenty to end up with the eight plants you actually want.
For saved seed, write the collection year on the envelope. Snapdragon seed keeps for about three years, and germination falls off noticeably after that; without a date on the packet you will eventually waste a whole tray and a month finding out.