Snapdragons are fun flowers. My Nan used to have some in her garden, and when I was small I would squeeze them to make the 'dragons' open their 'mouths'. I only recently learned their sinister secret (possibly because I used to pick all the flowers before they had a chance to go to seed).

I've been tidying up our back garden this summer, but the front garden is still a mess, and pretty overgrown in the flowerbeds. I decided to just observe it this year, to see if there were any plants I should try to save and relocate. I think there are a few roses and dahlias which I'll leave in-situ for the time being, as the colours aren't quite what I want for my dark-themed back garden. There's also a single Snapdragon (Antirrhinum) plant with bright pink flowers.

The Snapdragon first flowered a couple of months ago. I didn't do anything to tidy it up after the flowers wilted; I hadn't stripped them all for once. It's now having a second wave of flowers, but the old blooms have left their seed pods behind.

Seriously, they look like little skulls! Upside-down, admittedly, and they start off with long noses that eventually drop off. I was planning to plant some dark red Black Prince Snapdragons next year anyway, but this scores them extra Goth Points. Pictures are below. Now I just need to figure out how to introduce my girls to the joy of making Snapdragons 'snap', while leaving enough flowers to look pretty, then look spooky.

UPDATE 07/09/2018: Today I noticed my plant has naturally dropped most of its new flowers. Now I can see: it's the bit where a flower attaches to the plant that withers and becomes a skull. This is good news; I should be able to gently remove a few flowers to play with and leave the seed pods intact.