I always had a lot of winter kill with Music - somewhere in the 20% range so there was something it didn't like in my garden conditions. Carpathian is just really slow ... versus something like Georgian Crystal the Carpathian came up around 3 weeks later and stayed behind all season coming in as the last one to harvest.

Hmm, I haven't looked closely, but I didn't notice any no-shows for me. Spanish Roja did well for me last year. You now have me wanting to pull out my little map and double check my garlic when I get home.

I do remember last year, all of my garlic came up. I'll post a follow-up my results.

All of my Spanish Roja has come up. They do seem to be the smaller plants however.

My Spanish Roja took longer to come up, and the plants are smaller, but then the other one I am growing is Music, which seems to be big and hardy for everyone.

It's May. I would think that any garlic that's going to put in an appearance would have by now. Maybe I just had a bad couple of bulbs? Half the Roja came up. Half didn't. Same bed, same soil, and same planting time as the other garlic. Doesn't seem like there'd be anything different that would affect the Roja and not the other garlic. Blossom and Lotus a couple inches away came up fine.

I just did a full check, all of my Spanish Roja came up, but I had some surprising no-shows for Music!

I concur, it's May, we're close enough in general climate conditions that I agree that the cloves themselves were probably not as strong.

I noticed, though, that almost all of the garlic in my small raised beds came up. Those are 3x3 beds filled about half full with bagged garden soil. A couple didn't pop up, but they might have fallen victim to the squirrels. In the inground beds, I had about three bulbs worth of no shows and some that were skimpy. I've been tossing a little more compost on those beds every year, but I'm sure the soil isn't as good as it is in the raised beds.

Perhaps I'll plant carrots in those empty spaces. Or lettuce.

My garlic are all in raised beds. Interesting to note that Georgian Crystal is currently my largest. In addition to about 20% of my Music not coming up (along the lines of what makalu experiences).

lilacs, are you thinking of putting seeds in those empty spaces now? Or after all the garlic is harvested?

I'm thinking of planting something in those empty spaces now, although I may plant some fall crops after the garlic is harvested as well. My Georgian Crystal is doing well. My Music in the raised bed is doing fine, but I've only got one or two growing in the in-ground bed.

None of my spanish roja came up either. Two other varieties also completely failed to sprout. Only the unknown variety I got from the farmers market came up. I am pretty disappointed.

Have you guys dug down to see what happened to the cloves you planted ?

I'll be doing that after I pull the harvest. So most likely not until July. I want to avoid disturbing the growing ones.

Spanish Roja is my most prolific and largest garlic it has climatized well over the last 20 or so years and it is my best seller/money maker.

BILL