Re: Hardy snapdragons
"Sean A. O'Hara" wrote:
>>
> BTW - now is a good time to plant snaps - they love the cooler weather
> for growing a good sized plant for spring bloom. This would also seem to
> help in them living as perennials. I advocate the older, regular flower
> forms rather than the 'compact' or new 'azalea' flowered types. I still
> get a kick out of working the 'jaws' of this flowers! ;-)
>
Sean
Wish I could help with seed, but all I can get here is rust-prone types.
I do grow(and recommend) A hispanicum, which in the form I have is a
low-growing spreading grey-leaved shrublet with short spikes of lovely
fat pink snaps during summer. In spite of coming from Spain I do not
find it can cope with very dry conditions and I now grow it at the front
of a sunny border, rather than in the rockery. The Harkness Seedlist
Handbook calls it half-hardy and claims a height of 2ft with white or
pink flowers, but mine (which I got from a local Alpine supplier) seems
to be a special selection. I find anyway things claimed as half-hardy in
this particular list can easily cope with my 2-3 C of frost, and mine
has certainly grown gently all winter. so far I don't think it has
seeded, but I will look out for seed this summer, if anybody is
interested.
So glad we think alike about messing with the natural form of these
flowers. I can't warm to the open-flowered selections which just look
unnatural to me and far less interesting than the original
configuration.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
