Garlic splits into three groups that matter to a home gardener: hardneck, softneck and elephant garlic, which is not really garlic at all. Hardnecks give you stronger, more complex flavour and a scape to eat, but most want a cold winter and keep only four to six months. Softnecks are milder, far more forgiving of a warm winter, and store close to a year. Choosing for your climate matters more than anything you do at planting time.
In a supermarket, garlic is just garlic: white, usually imported, and out of cold storage. Once you start growing it, the picture opens up, and the labels on seed catalogues start to matter. Pick a type that does not suit your winter and you can do everything else right and still lift a single undivided bulb instead of a head of cloves.
Hardneck garlic
Suits: cool and cold districts. Tasmania, the Victorian high country, the NSW southern tablelands, the ACT, and cooler parts of South Australia.
Hardnecks are the closer relatives of wild garlic and carry the more interesting flavours, from sharply hot to sweet and nutty. The name comes from the woody flower stem that runs up through the centre of the bulb. In spring that stem pushes up and curls, and the curl is the scape. Cut them off while they are still tender and the plant puts that energy into the bulb instead. They are good eating, chopped into a stir fry or blitzed into a pesto.
What you give up is storage. Most hardnecks hold four to six months before the cloves soften or sprout, and the central stem means they cannot be braided.
The other catch is cold. Most hardnecks need a genuine winter to divide into cloves. Plant one in Brisbane without chilling it first and you will very likely get a round.
The useful exception. Turban and Creole varieties are hardnecks, or weakly bolting hardnecks, that cope with milder winters far better than the rest. Lismore Red is a turban grown successfully in northern New South Wales, and the Creole group combines hardneck flavour with storage closer to a softneck. If you want hardneck character in a warm garden, start there rather than with the fridge.
In our range, the hardnecks are Australian Purple and Tasmanian Purple, both turbans, Glamour, a weakly bolting hardneck that does its best work in cold climates and heavy soils, plus Lismore Red and Creole.
Softneck garlic
Suits: warm and mild districts, and honestly most of the country. Queensland, coastal New South Wales, Perth, Adelaide.
Softnecks are what the commercial trade grows, because they are tough, productive and keep for a long time. There is no woody stem, so the neck stays pliable, which is why these are the ones you can plait into the ropes you see hanging in delicatessens. Cut one open and you usually find several layers of cloves, larger around the outside and smaller towards the middle.
Stored somewhere cool, dark and dry, a softneck will often hold nine to twelve months, which means last season's garlic carries you to the next harvest. They also ask far less cold to bulb properly, which is the whole reason they dominate in warm climates.
The trade-offs are real but minor: the cloves are usually smaller and tighter-skinned, so more fiddly to peel, and the flavour is generally milder than a good hardneck.
In our range, Australian White and Italian Pink are softnecks. Two others are worth knowing about for warm gardens: Kenlarge and Glenlarge, both Australian-bred subtropical varieties, Glenlarge developed at the Gatton Research Station in Queensland. Both are day-length neutral, which is part of why they perform where other garlic will not.
Elephant garlic
Suits: most climates.
Elephant garlic is not a garlic. It is Allium ampeloprasum, which makes it a closer relative of the leek, and the flavour follows from that: mild, sweet, sitting somewhere between onion and garlic rather than delivering a garlic hit.
What it does give you is size. The bulbs are very large and the individual cloves run to around 20 grams each, which makes them worth roasting whole until they go soft and sweet. Treat it as its own vegetable rather than as a substitute, and it earns a spot.
Choosing in one line
| What you want | Choose |
|---|---|
| You garden somewhere hot or humid (Brisbane, the Top End) | A subtropical softneck such as Kenlarge or Glenlarge, or a turban such as Lismore Red |
| You garden somewhere cold (Hobart, Ballarat, the tablelands) | Anything, and this is your chance at the hardnecks that struggle elsewhere |
| You want to plait garlic | A softneck. It is the only type you can |
| You want garlic that lasts most of the year | A softneck, or a Creole |
| You want the strongest, most complex flavour | A hardneck |
| You want scapes to cook with | A hardneck. Softnecks do not produce them |
| You want something for roasting whole | Elephant garlic |
Scroll the table sideways on a phone.
Frequently asked questions
Can I grow a hardneck in a warm climate?
Yes, with a bit of preparation. Chill whole bulbs in the fridge for four to six weeks immediately before planting, or choose a turban variety that needs less cold to begin with.
Why did my garlic form one solid bulb?
That is a round, and it means the plant never got the cold signal to divide. Eat it, or replant it next autumn, when it will usually clove up normally.
How long does each type keep?
Roughly four to six months for most hardnecks and nine to twelve for softnecks, kept cool, dark, dry and with some air around them. Creoles sit at the long end for a hardneck.
Is purple garlic always a hardneck?
No. Colour is not a reliable guide to type. Glenlarge is also sold as Early Purple and is a subtropical variety, while plenty of hardnecks are pale. Go by the variety description rather than the skin.
Can I plant a supermarket bulb?
You can try, but it is often imported, frequently treated to stop it sprouting, and almost never named, so you have no idea whether it suits your winter.
One shipping note. We cannot send garlic bulbs to Western Australia or Tasmania, because of their plant quarantine requirements.
Related growing guides
- Which garlic should I grow? A flavour and variety guide
- Growing purple garlic where winters are mild
- How to store seed garlic before planting
Ready to plant? Browse our Garlic Bulbs.
1 comment
Lorraine
Thankyou. This is the most useful summery on garlic I have ever read.