The Best Fall Bulbs for Southern Gardens

While some spring-flowering bulbs need a chilling period before blooming, others are perfectly happy in warmer climates. These bulbs are native to warmer parts of the world, like southern Europe and Asia, which is why they are suitable for mild summers like in the southern states.

For those in the south, here are some of the best bulbs to plant in the fall for colorful blooms in the spring!

Daffodils

A number of Daffodils are suitable for southern gardeners to plant in fall.

• Rijnveld’s Early Sensation has two-toned yellow flowers and blooms in very early spring or even winter, sometimes poking out from a blanket of snow.
• Saint Keverne is a long-lasting variety with a large yellow cup and vanilla-like fragrance. We think this is an all-time best, no matter what part of the country you live in.
• Ice Follies is another good option. It has creamy white petals and a cheery yellow cup that matures to white.
• Ceylon has buttercup-yellow petals that surround a red-orange cup. This flower is one of the longer-lasting Daffodils.

• Dutch Master is an all-yellow Trumpet Daffodil, a group named because their flowers have a trumpet (also called the cup or corona) as long as, or even longer than, their petals.
• Avalanche, sometimes called Seventeen Sisters, falls in the group of Tazetta Daffodils. Tazetta means tiny cups in Italian. Tazetta Daffodils have a sweet, musky fragrance. Avalanche in particular is superb—it has showy, white flowers and up to 20 blooms per stem, sure to be a standout in your garden.
• Baby Boomer is a cross between Tazetta and Jonquil Daffodils, meaning you get the best of both worlds! It’s a prolific yellow Daffodil that has multiple flowers per stem and is long-lasting and highly fragrant.

Other Fall Bulbs for Southern Gardens

If you want to feature more than just Daffodils in your spring garden, you’re in luck!

• Sylvestris is a sunny-yellow woodland Tulip that’s shade-tolerant and tends to naturalize, which means it reseeds and spreads.

• Tommasinianus is a squirrel-resistant Crocus with pale to deep lilac flowers that are often silvery or creamy on the outside. This Crocus performs wells in yards rather than lawns—briefly, yards don’t have mindless irrigation systems and don’t use many chemicals. Yards, in general, are better suited for bulbs, giving them a better chance to come back year after year. 
• Hyacinthoides hispanica ‘Queen of Pinks,’ or Spanish Bluebells, have large, soft lavender-pink flowers. To achieve color echo in your garden, plant them under soft pink Azaleas. 
• Mystic Beauty has pale blue and yellow flowers touched with drops of gold. This is a Dutch Iris, a type of Iris that blooms in May and is known to do quite well in warmer climates.

• Allium christophii, sometimes called Ornamental Onion, has many loosely formed starry flowers that are compressed to make one large, round head. This is one of the few Alliums that are tolerant of warmer climates. Many other varieties need cold winters and hot, dry summers, rather than mild winters and hot, wet summers like in the south. 

• Anemone blanda ‘Blue Shades’ has pale to dark blue flowers and grows up to only six inches tall. Plant Blue Shades or other Anemone blanda varieties to create a gorgeous carpet of color.
• Galanthus elwesii, also called Snowdrop, has lovely white, nodding flowers. These are great for rock gardens, woodlands, or in the front of borders.
• Muscari armeniacum, sometimes called Grape Hyacinth, has stunning cobalt blue flowers—a color not so often come by in the gardening world! These flowers are great at naturalizing.

• Scilla peruviana has softball-sized spheres of tiny dark-violet starry flowers. It’s pest-resistant and will bloom from late spring to early summer.

There are many choices out there for southern gardeners who want to plant bulbs this fall for spring color. It’s just a matter of knowing which bulbs don’t mind your local climate!