Bellingrath Gardens and Home, at 12401 Bellingrath Gardens Road, plans its fall season as a run of overlapping displays that open and close on different dates. A single visit catches only part of it. The 2026 Great Bellingrath Harvest runs from September 19 through November 8, with program hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pumpkins, scarecrows, a Halloween night and the cascading mums each come and go on their own schedule. Then Magic Christmas in Lights takes over the evenings and changes the daytime hours too.
That calendar suits people who live a short drive away. Out-of-town guests get one shot at the season. Theodore households can split it into several short trips and pair each one with an hour on Fowl River, where Mobile County has already rebuilt one public launch and has just been funded to build another.
The calendar changes hands every few weeks
Bellingrath's 2026 Harvest page lists each display with its own dates. Put side by side, they show how quickly the gardens change:
| Window | What's on | What has ended by then |
|---|---|---|
| September 19 to late October | Pumpkin displays throughout the Gardens | Fall Plant Market, September 18 to 20 |
| September 26 to November 1 | Scarecrows in the Gardens, built by local schools, businesses and organizations, with visitor voting | Pumpkins, by the end of October |
| October 24, 4 to 8 p.m. | Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee with trick-or-treating, costume contests, crafts and games | Not applicable, one night only |
| Late October through November | 63rd Annual Cascading Mums | Scarecrows after November 1, and the Harvest program after November 8 |
| November 20, 2026 to January 9, 2027, 5 to 9 p.m. | Magic Christmas in Lights | The mums, as November ends |
Bellingrath calls the mum display the nation's largest outdoor display of cascading chrysanthemums. Thousands of yellow, red, bronze and lavender mums spill from bridges, balconies and urns. The gardens have not posted exact 2026 start dates for the mums, only "late October through November," so the first week depends on how the plants come along.
Late October is when the overlap peaks, and mid-November is the quiet stretch
The busiest single day on the calendar is Saturday, October 24. The Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee runs that evening from 4 to 8 p.m. The scarecrows are still up then, the pumpkins are in their last days, and the mums are due to start. If you can make only one Harvest visit, that week shows the most at once.
The stretch after the Harvest wraps on November 8 gets talked about less. From November 9 until the lights open on November 20, the gardens fall back to general-admission hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The last Gardens tickets sell at 4 p.m., and the last Home tour tickets at 3:30 p.m. Over those eleven days the mums are still listed as on display and no other major program is scheduled.
Once Magic Christmas in Lights begins, the day schedule tightens. The last daytime Garden tickets sell at 3 p.m., the last daytime Home tours at 2 p.m., and the Garden closes from 4 to 5 p.m. to set up for the evening. The lights are closed November 25 and 26, December 25 and January 1. Bellingrath prices evening admission separately from day tickets and said 2026 tickets would go on sale in October. Admission rates are posted on Bellingrath's visit page, so check current prices there before you go.
The river half of the afternoon
A garden visit ends by late afternoon at the latest, which leaves daylight for the water. Two stops on the Fowl River side of Theodore have current, verifiable details:
- The Pelican Reef and Fowl River Marina, 11799 Dauphin Island Parkway. The Pelican Reef describes itself as a seafood restaurant and marina at Fowl River Marina and says the marina's boat launches are open year-round. The state's boating-access listing puts the facility on State Highway 193, on the north side of the Fowl River Bridge, with two ramps and a $5 launch fee. It also notes that the state does not maintain the facility. A visitor review dated September 2, 2026 on Tripadvisor confirms the restaurant was serving recently.
- Memories Fish Camp, 4901 Fowl River Road. Mobile County Parks lists it as free and open during daylight hours, with a boat ramp, an ADA-accessible kayak launch, a dock, parking and bank fishing. The county notes it is not staffed daily. The county held a public reopening and ribbon cutting on February 23, 2024, after building a new ramp, dock and accessible kayak launch.
Memories Fish Camp's kayak launch makes it easy to get on the water without a trailer. A short paddle fits into the same afternoon as a morning walk through the scarecrows.
A third launch is coming. In August 2026, Gov. Kay Ivey announced about $52 million in Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act funding for 21 coastal Alabama projects, including a new Mobile County boat ramp. The list includes $5,000,000 for the Mobile County Commission's Byrnewood Boat Ramp and Public Access project. The project is funded but not built, so it won't be part of this fall. It does mean public access on this side of Fowl River is growing.
The gardens are changing too
The river isn't the only thing being reworked. In October 2025, Bellingrath unveiled a Centennial Master Plan to guide the gardens ahead of their 100th anniversary in 2032. It has three main pieces. The first restores the historic core around the Bellingrath Home, with design work scheduled to begin the day after the announcement. The second adds a new Children's and Family Adventure Garden. The third rebuilds the Camellia Arboretum, which Hurricane Frederic heavily damaged in 1979. FOX10 described it as a long-term vision for the next century, so treat it as a plan that's still in progress, not a list of finished spaces you can walk through this fall.
The holiday season is where Bellingrath has drawn its largest crowds. Its January 2025 recap said the previous Magic Christmas in Lights season drew more than 100,000 visitors, a record for the event at the time. The spring Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival is still settling in. Executive Director Todd Lasseigne said the 2026 festival drew fewer visitors than its 2025 debut and confirmed it will return in 2027. The visit page lists the 2027 run as April 22 through June 27, Thursday through Sunday evenings.
Fall falls between those two big evening events. It runs during the day, it's scheduled to the date, and it brings the smallest crowds of the three.
A fall plan built around four Saturdays
Using the dates above, here is one way to catch each wave without making any single trip a long day:
- Saturday, October 10. Scarecrows and pumpkins are both up. Walk the Gardens in the morning, then go to Memories Fish Camp for a paddle or some bank fishing before dark.
- Saturday, October 24. Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee from 4 to 8 p.m. Get there in the late afternoon and keep the rest of the day free.
- Saturday, November 14. Mums in the quiet window after the Harvest ends, with general-admission hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Have a late lunch at The Pelican Reef on Dauphin Island Parkway afterward.
- Any open night after November 20. Magic Christmas in Lights from 5 to 9 p.m. Buy evening tickets once Bellingrath releases 2026 pricing in October, and avoid November 25 and 26.
Each trip takes half a day or less. Over the season that adds up to scarecrows, Halloween, the 63rd Cascading Mums and the start of the lights, plus two different ways onto Fowl River.
If you've lived near Bellingrath Gardens Road for a few fall seasons, you may wonder what your home is worth today. The team at Coldwell Banker Smith Homes works across Theodore and the Fowl River side of Mobile County and can give you a clear, local answer. Get Your Free Home Valuation, and we're happy to talk mums and boat ramps too.
