Kirk,
I had what the catalog showed last year from my rocket snaps, but this year the weather didn't permit any annual to grow to it's potential. I'm sorry, I don't know what the problem could be with yours, flowerfarmer seems to be having a great growing season, and in the same state. We just didn't have warm weather, especially night time temps in time for these to get tall.
Cheryl

Those snapdragons with florets all up and down the stem are probably a result of growing the snaps in a greenhouse, maybe with screens on the intake vents. There are no pollinators, so the flowers stay open longer. If there is another way, I don't know what it is, other than possibly killing off all the flying insects within a radius of several miles.

I grow a few greenhouse snaps. Even without screens on my intake vents, there aren't many pollinators in there, so I get lovely full stems, albeit still not quite as full as those photos. That's in sharp contrast to my field-grown snaps, which look just like yours. As long as I accept that they will never look the same, nor can they be used the same way in bouquets, I stay happy.

Jeanne

Kirk,
Last year we had ideal growing conditions in Michigan. This year there has been much stress -- both on the plants and the growers.

Picture of Rocket Snapdragons in a pink and white section. The white are much taller and more fragrant than the pink. I don't think they look that bad considering all the heat we have had. They also held up well through the pounding rain and flash flood we received here on Saturday evening.

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Photo taken on Sunday after we supposedly harvested for the Saturday markets. It looks a little blurry; but, it was pretty hazy at 6 pm yesterday. We harvest starting again today for the next market.

Mine look pretty similar to Flowerfarmer's, although they often drop a couple more florets in the process of cutting, leaf stripping, transporting etc.

I never noticed that they were fragrant but someone visiting the garden with me thought they smelled very nice. I'll see if I notice the difference between the colors.

Flowerfarmer, this has been a more stressful year for me and my plants, too. On the other hand, I have lots of subscriptions and plenty of flowers for the first time, so there is an upside to the stress.
Kirk

I wish we were dealing with the stress of too many subscribers right now!

I grew "Bright butterflies" snaps this year and I purely love them! I haven't noticed them dropping petals. MAybe because I PIck when the first few flowers are opening...but I had one yellow outlast everything in a 10 day bouquet and still look fresh as a daisy. The flowers that opened in the house were noticably paler but the whole bloom stalk opened and is still beautiful.

They keep opening after being cut, and don't drop that much, so the spike continues to get fuller in the bouquet (or bucket).

Jeanne