I plated about 300 cloves here in Tennessee, first batch planted in October, final batch just before Christmas. The October and November plantings came up and grew quite nicely, some are up to a foot in height right now. My December plantings are coming up VERY slowly, green leaves just 1 to 3 inches tall.

We had at least two hard freezes, both within the last three or so weeks, temps down to 10-14 deg F for a couple straight nights. Made the green leaves a little limp; the largest ones are flopping over a bit, but it doesn't look like any have died.

So to answer your question, I planted in Fall, leaves sprung up, hard freezes didn't materially affect them (none of the leaves fell off, for example), they're all still chugging away. The tallest ones aren't as green as they were a month or two ago, but they're still ... I'll call it 'kinda green'.

J

In Central Texas we plant garlic in late October to mid-November. It begins to show green shoots within two or three weeks, grows slowly all winter (we have infrequent freezes with the nighttime temps going to mid-20's that do not affect the garlic at all), begins to really grow in February and we harvest in May when the tops tell us the bulbs are ready. Of course, we can only do the soft-neck variety but garlic is a very reliable crop for us.
In the Texas Hill Country there is a gentleman who specializes in garlic--he ships varieties of garlic all over, and has selected varieties most suited to our climate. If you do a search on Gourmet Garlic, his website will come up. He might be able to tell you more.

I try to plant all garlic around Nov 1st. It grows faster when warmer and slower when colder and seems to grow all winter, so its quite tall by spring.