I’ve grown well over a million stems of snapdragons since I started my flower farming business in 1998. Throughout the years my relationship with this flower has had a lot of ups and downs but one thing remains constant: snapdragons are easy to grow and they are in high demand by all kinds of customers.
I now realize how great it is to have such an in-demand and easy-to-grow flower during your early years of building a flower farming business. Snapdragons were the first flowers I ever started growing from seed and each year, as my business expanded, I grew more and more of them.
At first, I stuck with a standard snapdragon variety called ‘Rocket’. This is an heirloom that grew super sturdy transplants in great colors with tall stems. I had so much success with ‘Rocket’ that I never really looked at growing any other snapdragon. Rocket became my go-to snapdragon.
But soon after, I wanted and needed snapdragons earlier in the season. That’s when I learned about other varieties that have different characteristics, including blooming earlier than ‘Rocket’. There were so many snapdragons to discover. Some with different bloom shapes, colors, and even varying shades within a single color.
Writing about my snapdragon journey has reminded me how I came to include so many different snapdragons throughout the years. The selection is vast. Some years there have been over 50 different snap varieties and colors planted in my garden!
Things got a little crazy at seed ordering time growing so many different varieties of one given flower in all the different colors. Remember, snaps are but a small portion of what I grew. I had to purchase a boatload of seeds which was costly plus it was a little crazy organizing.
As my business and customer lists grew, I began selling flowers by color. One quiet morning, when I happened to be alone on the farm harvesting, I decided to move around the garden (time waster!) and harvest all the same snap colors into buckets instead of going up and down the beds harvesting as I always did for the quickest harvest and then sort flowers by color later in the work building.
Those buckets full of one color in varying shades were gorgeous! Plus the different bloom shapes— it was pretty spectacular. I stood there alone with those buckets and wondered: how much time and effort would be saved in seed starting, planting, and harvesting if I mixed all the varieties of one color in all the shades into one seed mix and planted them once to bloom from early spring to summer?
Boom, the TGW Dragon Mixes were born.
And that is how the TGW’s Dragon Mixes came to be. Our custom mixes of TGW’s Dragon Mixes are available in White, Yellow, Pink, and Sunset. From one packet of seeds, you get the greatest variety of shades and bloom structures in one color from one planting over a longer period of time. We’ve done the work for you!
Learn More:
TGW Dragon seed mix links:
Snapdragon, TGW Sunset Dragons
Snapdragon, TGW Yellow Dragons
BOOKS:
PODCASTS:
Growing Snapdragons With Dave Dowling
BLOGS:
YOUTUBE SHORT:
Meet the TGW Dragon Snapdragons!
RESOURCE LINKS:
The Field and Garden Blog is produced by Lisa Mason Ziegler, award-winning author of Vegetables Love Flowers and Cool Flowers, owner of The Gardener’s Workshop, Flower Farming School Online, and the publisher of Farmer-Florist School Online and Florist School Online. Watch Lisa’s Story and connect with Lisa on social media!
