Thats the english name, the scientific name is "antirrhinums" coming from the Greek word "antirrhinum" meaning “nose-like", the Romans called them "leonis ora" or "lion mouth". These beautiful flowers can only be pollinated by larger insects due to the flower strength, oringinally from Southern Spain, North Africa and Americas. Apparently the Romans loved these flowers so they were spread throughout their empire.
Historically the snapdragon flower carried dual meanings, either grace and resilience, or deception, the later because it can grow in rocky areas! Given the current times we are in I think grace and resilience is perfect, we should all be rewarded for our grace under pressure and internal strength to overcome these challenging times.
This is the first year we've tried to grow a larger quantity to add to our online flower deliveries across Melbourne, and farmers markets. So we've spent the last week at the farm planting out by hand thousands of our snapdragon seedlings. Snapdragon seeds are tiny, I'm mean tiny, so I am always amazed something so tiny can grow into a seedling (some of our newly planted seedlings below) and then into the most amazing flowers (the flowers shown are not ours, but this is 'Opus Apple Blossom' and we have planted lots of these so hopefully I can replace this picture with one of ours in a few months!)
I find the meaning attributed to flowers curious at best but the history is interesting and if you were looking to send someone the gift of flowers the extra thought and care in flower selection adds an extra layer to the gift and can be personally rewarding.
You could give a snapdragon as a gift to someone who has overcome a challenge in life – or perhaps to someone who needs to get through a bout of bad luck. It would be a great option on both occasions!
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