Snapdragons are native to France and Spain but have been cultivated in gardens for hundreds of years; early gardeners called them Calves' Snout and Lion's Mouth after the hinged florets. They are indispensable in cutting and cottage gardens due to their handsome glossy dark green foliage and numerous floral spikes crowded with bloom, adding contrast to gardens with rounded forms. A favorite cut flower that blooms all summer in areas where nights cool down and late spring and fall in hotter regions. To promote bushy growth, pinch the plant when setting it out, and stake it early with twiggy brush or crossed bamboo stakes in windy gardens to support the tall flower-filled stems. Native bumblebees, heavy enough to shoulder open the hinged flowers, emerge rich in nectar and covered with pollen, carrying the gold dusting to the next blossom. After the first flush of bloom, deadhead, removing the spikes with developing seeds down to vegetative branching and fertilizing the trimmed plants for renewed flowering until late fall.