When to Plant Daffodil Bulbs: Fall Dates Before Your Hard Freeze

Plant daffodil bulbs in fall, starting when nights cool to about 50°F and finishing by your first frost, or at the latest by your first hard freeze (28°F). That means mid-September to mid-October in the upper Midwest and northern Plains, late September to mid-November across the lower Midwest and Northeast, and mid-October to early November from Washington, DC, to Atlanta. Plant them before your tulips: daffodils need their roots set before the cold, and Southern extension services plant them in October and November with no refrigerator step.

We turned that advice into dates for 24 cities using NOAA’s 1991–2020 climate normals,¹ then checked them against nine daffodil planting windows published by extension services and Master Gardener programs. Where hard freezes occur, those windows close a median 2 days before the median hard freeze, and the median first frost falls inside seven of the nine. Tulips can wait longer; see when to plant tulip bulbs.

Daffodil planting dates for 24 US cities

South Dakota State University Extension’s cue for hardy bulbs applies to daffodils too: start once nights stay between 40 and 50°F.³ As in our tulip guide, we date it from the day the normal nightly low reaches 50°F at the nearest weather station.¹ The deadline comes from frost. The National Weather Service defines a hard freeze as 28°F or lower for an extended time² (frost vs. freeze explains the difference).

Across 37,569 ZIP codes, the median hard freeze comes 11 days after the median first frost (9 to 15 days in 8 of 10), your margin if planting runs late. For your own ZIP code, look up your first frost and hard-freeze dates.

How the dates compare with nine local daffodil calendars

We compared every local daffodil window we could read from an extension service or Master Gardener program with the NOAA dates for the same place.^{4,5,6,8,9,10,11,12,13}

The windows end a median 14 days after the median first frost and, in the eight places with hard freezes, 2 days before the median hard freeze. MU Extension is the most cautious, advising early to mid-October around Columbia, two weeks before the median first frost, though it says later planting can work in a mild fall.⁹ In Carson City, Nevada, normal lows reach 50°F by late August, so, as with Bend, Oregon, in our tulip guide, go by frost in the high desert.¹⁰

Why daffodils go in before tulips

Roots are the reason, as Missouri’s David Trinklein explains:

Daffodils must have time to develop a good root system before cold temperatures set in

Ohio State’s Master Gardeners in Ross County single out daffodils as needing time to root before the ground freezes.⁸ Tulips are more forgiving, as our tulip guide shows. In the North the calendars barely separate the two, and Iowa State gives October for both,⁶ so plant daffodils first. In the South the gap is one to three months, because tulips must be chilled first:

Sources: Iowa State,⁶ Clemson,¹¹ LSU AgCenter¹² and UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County.¹³ Clemson’s rule: daffodils in October or November, other spring bulbs only once the soil at planting depth stays below 60°F.¹¹

What soil temperature to plant daffodils

Chicago Botanic Garden says daffodils prefer soil below 55°F,²¹ and University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension plants spring bulbs, daffodils included, once the ground cools to about 50–55°F.²⁰ NOAA normals contain no soil temperatures, so, as in the tulip guide, we don’t estimate a soil date; a soil thermometer at bulb depth will tell you.

Deer, squirrels and voles leave daffodils alone

Rutgers Cooperative Extension rates daffodils “Rarely Damaged” by deer, its best category, and tulips “Frequently Severely Damaged,” its worst.¹⁸ Colorado State Extension notes that deer tend to avoid them.¹⁹ On digging animals, the University of Minnesota warns that squirrels and chipmunks

may dig up and eat bulbs after being planted, especially tulips (narcissus bulbs are poisonous)

Clemson says animals rarely eat daffodil bulbs,¹¹ Ohio State’s Master Gardeners say squirrels, chipmunks and mice leave daffodils alone,⁸ and Nebraska Extension Master Gardener Kathy Tando writes that voles love tulip bulbs but don’t bother daffodils.⁵

The reason is chemistry. NC State Extension lists phenanthridine alkaloids such as lycorine, plus calcium oxalate crystals, as the plant’s toxic principles.¹⁶

Daffodils come back; most tulips don’t

UW–Madison Extension says daffodils tend to live longer in Wisconsin soils than tulips,²⁰ and Iowa State calls them more vigorous than tulips and most other spring bulbs.⁷ The gap widens in the South, where Clemson calls daffodils

the most successful of the popular spring bulbs for naturalizing in the South

Tulips there are usually grown for a single season.¹¹ To keep daffodils coming back, leave the leaves until they turn yellow: at least six weeks after bloom, says Clemson, and about eight weeks, says MU.^11,9 Divide clumps when flowers shrink: every three or four years for large daffodils in South Carolina, every five to 10 years for well-spaced bulbs in Missouri.^11,9

Mild winters: chilling, zones and which daffodils to plant

Large trumpet daffodils need a real winter: MU Extension gives 13 weeks at 40 to 45°F for daffodils forced into bloom.⁹ With that yardstick, we counted for every ZIP code in PRISM’s table of 2023 hardiness zones the normal-winter days averaging 45°F or colder.^25,1 It is stricter than the 48°F count in our tulip guide and, like it, measures air, not soil.

In a normal winter, 98% of zone 7a ZIP codes get at least 13 weeks at 45°F or colder, but only 73% in 7b, 19% in 8a, 12% in 8b, 8% in 9a and 1% in 9b. The zone is not the whole story, because it measures the coldest night, not the length of winter (planting zone vs. frost date).²⁴ Seattle, in zone 9a, gets 93 such days; Austin and Savannah, also in 9a, get none.

Southern extension services answer with different daffodils, not a refrigerator. Clemson says tazettas, paperwhites among them, need no chilling period, that jonquil, tazetta, poeticus and species daffodils grow reliably throughout South Carolina, and that large-flowered ‘Carlton’ and ‘Ice Follies’ are reliable perennials in the South.¹¹ LSU AgCenter recommends heirloom types with proven heat tolerance that need little chilling.¹² Texas A&M AgriLife’s Travis County list for Central Texas leans on tazettas and jonquils,¹⁴ and UGA’s Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens in Savannah reports ‘Ice Follies’ and the tazetta ‘Erlicheer’ returning year after year.¹⁵

For classic trumpets in a mild climate, the Northern California Daffodil Society suggests refrigerating new bulbs for several weeks and planting in mid- to late November.²² Google’s AI Overview gives 8 to 12 weeks of refrigeration for zone 9; we found no extension source for that figure.

How to plant daffodil bulbs

Depth advice runs deeper in the North and shallower in the warm South, where LSU says deep planting can rot bulbs.¹² Most sources measure from the base of the bulb.^7,23

1. 1

   Pick a sunny, well-drained spot

   Clemson asks for at least six hours of sun a day while the leaves are up.¹¹ MU calls drainage the most demanding need of daffodils; in wet spots bulbs weaken, stop flowering and rot.⁹

2. 2

   Set bulbs point up, in groups

   Set each bulb nose up, root plate down.²³ Iowa State plants at least five of one variety together; groups of 10 or more look best.⁷

   

3. 3

   Water in, then mulch

   Water to settle the soil, without overwatering, says Iowa State.⁷ Minnesota adds 2 to 3 inches of leaf mulch, wood mulch or clean straw.⁴

4. 4

   Go easy on fertilizer

   Iowa State says fertilizer at planting isn’t typically necessary and mostly feeds next year’s bulb, not this spring’s flowers.⁷ If you use a product, follow its label for the amount.

Missed the window?

Iowa State says bulbs can go in as late as late November or early December if the weather allows,⁶ and Nevada’s JoAnne Skelly plants while the ground is unfrozen, ideally before Thanksgiving.¹⁰ Don’t hold bulbs until spring: Iowa State says unplanted bulbs often shrivel over winter, and spring-planted ones often fail to bloom.⁷

Next, see when to plant tulip bulbs, when to plant garlic or the flowers and bulbs section; our hardiness zone guides and methodology page explain the data.