Antirrhinum Crown Mixed

A bedding snapdragon rather than a cutting one, and honest about it. Bushy plants at 35 to 45cm that branch freely from the base, in a full rainbow of scarlet, hot pink, yellow, deep purple and white, flowering from June to the first hard frosts.

The virtue here is that it asks nothing of you. The taller cutting varieties want pinching, staking and careful handling. Crown Mixed goes in the ground and gets on with it, and the spikes are dense and weather-resistant enough to take a wet summer without collapsing. If you want long stems for the vase this is the wrong snapdragon; the stems are short and bushy and only really suit a jam jar posy.

It is the classic dragon's mouth flower, the one children squeeze open and shut, which is reason enough on its own to put a row of it where they will find it. Bumblebees are the only insects heavy enough to force the petals apart and reach the nectar, so a bed of these is a bumblebee bed specifically. In a mild garden it behaves as a short-lived perennial and will sometimes overwinter.