Animal-Proof Fall Bulbs

The same deer and rodents that gobble up tulips and crocuses usually leave crown imperials alone. These majestic plants can grow 3 to 4 feet tall, with stems topped by yellow or orange-red flowers. Plant the bulbs sideways, so the stem holes won't catch water that can cause rotting. They're hardy in zones 5 to 8.

'Globemaster' alliums, also known as flowering onions, bear giant balls of lilac-purple flowers. Allium means "garlic" in Latin, and the plants belong to the same family as chives and onions. The smelly sulfides in alliums apparently repel deer and rodents.

Snowdrops often pop through a crust of snow in late winter or very early spring, and they're lovely in woodland gardens or planted around deciduous trees and shrubs. The leaves and bulbs contain poisonous alkaloids, which deter many hungry pests--but beware: Galanthus can also be toxic to your pets, so be careful where you grow them.

Plants lots of 'Pimpernel' daffodils, or narcissus, for sweeps of yellow and tangerine-orange in your landscape. Daffodils contain a bitter, toxic alkaloid known as lycorine, so deer and rodents won't bother the many varieties of these spring-flowering bulbs.