Garlic should have been planted last fall. To plant it now would only yield tiny bulbs. It would be best to use the space for something else now and then plant the garlic this fall when a space opens up in your garden.

At this time of the year, the best thing to do would probably be to grow bulbils as they do tend to increase in size and build up a bunch of energy without flowering if they are planted in the spring.

You could probably plant them, let them die back over the summer, and then they should start growing again once it starts cooling down in late summer.

You should be able to get some decent bulbs by the summer of 2014 this way. I would suggest getting a few different species from the same supplier.

Thank you for your response. Never tried to grow garlic, so I know I need to wait till fall. Will put this out there later in the year in hopes of the experieced garlic growers would have a few of thiers that they would like to part with by trading for something I grow. I do not want to just take a chance and pick thru a list of names of 100 varieties that does not tell me anything. I love recommedations from gardeners. They are usually more than willing to help other gardeners get started on the right path without just a supplier selling anything just to make a buck. Great knowledge being shared here and I too will share my garlic eventually and my knowledge. pay it forward... Thanks again I suppose I should try to get a few from some of the garlic folks here when they harvest theirs so I can taste them and see which ones are the ones I am interested in. Just drop me an email and we can see what you would like for a trade.

As I have done often, I will suggest that you go to local farmers markets and "alternative" grocery stores to see what garlic they may have for sale which will probably be grown near where you live and therefore will be well suited to your climate.

I have heard too many sad tales of garlic that went bad during shipping.

I grow soft neck and hard neck species, but if you are just starting out, I would suggest getting a hard neck species such as German red or look around the website for the description of a garlic you want. Hardnecks are easier to pull out of the ground, and more resistant to winter freezes however they don't store quite as long as softnecks.

Some do taste spicier while some can be more on the sweet or mild side. One that I would stay away from is the elephant garlic which doesn't have the garlic flavor as it is not a true garlic.

If you start out a few beds filled with a few species of bulbils, you should at least get a better idea of how these garlic grow. If you have good soil, you could potentially get full sized bulbs by 2014 from bulbil planting this spring.

I attached one of my blog posts on garlic so you can see how they are grown. This is a very brown thumb proof plant to grow.

Here is a link that might be useful: blog post on my garlic

Thanks everyone. Looks like I will wait till summer to see if there will be some knowledgeable folks selling a few varieties of garlic and try to start some this fall. I will definately stay away from the Elephant Garlic. thank you Steve for the link. Chances are that the garlic being sold thru a couple of the local markets are brought in from Michigan. If garlic are hard to mail, it must be rather chancey to order some thru the net.