Growing snapdragons year after year
Q I love snapdragons and ours are amazing this year. I like where they are growing, so can I grow more in the same place next year?
Yvonne Wilkinson (via email)
A Though your plants have flourished this year it is not wise to grow the same plant in the same place year after year. Root infections can build up and performance suffers. Next, and in subsequent years, please, if feasible, grow your antirrhinums where you have not grown them for at least three years.
If that is not possible, I urge you to create an equally beautiful display with dahlias. There’s a wide range of varieties to choose from and all, in a warm, sunny spot, will bloom from July to November.
Alternatively, plant tuberous begonias or ‘Sonata Dwarf Mix’ cosmos, whose multiplicity of saucer-shaped blooms will delight you.
Having said that, although antirrhinums are usually treated as annuals, if they are growing in a sheltered area of the garden they may survive winter and grow again next year.
Cut them back in autumn, mulch their roots and protect with fleece if very cold weather is forecast, and they may survive. If they do, feed them and water them in spring,
