Try this link. Should answer all your questions. I am about 300 miles north of your latitude, but hard necks do very well here.

Here is a link that might be useful: growing garlic in the south

Yes you can grow hardnecks . We are in NC near the VA border zone 7 . We can grow certain hardnecks and certain softnecks . We have found rhe hardest to grow are the "rocambole" types of hardnecks they really like cold weather. Certain porcelain and purple stripe hardnecks will do well here. I would recogmend Music, Metchi,and Guatemalan. Also the group called turbans which are related to the softneck but have a flower stalk like our in between climate. Also all softnecks are not the same. Consitantly the artichoke type softneck does well here but silverskins do not.Of the artichoke types we grow lorz italian , kettle river giant and inchillium. Also I would not try creoles they apparently like the deep south better than us in zone 7.
The garlic lady

GarlicLady,
I am a newbie, (in zone 5).
How do I tell the difference between a hardneck and softneck garlic?
The garlic I bought in my supermarket are they hard or soft?
And do you think I can plant the supermarket garlic in my garden?

Thanks

tsa47,

A hardneck has a hard stem in it. When growing that stem forms a scape which is a long (2-4') stem with a flower/seed head on top (usually cut off for max bulb size). Softnecks don't form this scape. Harvested you can still tell by looking at the top of the bulb for an offwhite (usually) stem piece inbetween the cloves.

When buying seed garlic (just garlic heads from a retailer intending it to be planted rather than eaten) the type will always be listed.

The supermarket garlic is almost invariably California White. Yes, you can simply take the individual cloves and plant them and they will grow. It is an inexpensive way to get started. However, the price of seed garlic shouldn't be a concern. Garlic, once purchased, lasts forever. You simply dig up the plants when ready (leaves turn brown) eat what you wish and in the fall plant some of the cloves. So, you only need buy a particular variety once.

tsa47,

Wanted to add that in your zone (same as mine) you need to mulch the garlic that you plant in the fall. I didn't do this last year and half my garlic didn't come up in the spring. Previously I mulched and 100% or nearly that came up in the spring. You might get lucky in any given year without mulch in the winter, but you might not. I generally just use leaves or grass that I bag with my mulch mower for the winter mulch.

>The supermarket garlic is almost invariably California White....Until recently this was true. But the past two years have seen strong inroads made by South American (particularly Peruvian) garlic. So there is now a large artichoke type found in the markets as often as the California White.

I don't know the specific variety. But, among other things, it beats the heck out of the California White. But, then again, what doesn't!

Does this sound ok? I'm getting two sampler packs. One has Inchelium Red, Transylvanian, Silverskin and Red Toch. The other has Asian Tempest, Killarney Red, Morado Gigante and Metechi. Thanks for the help! I've been buying garlic from our farmer's market and there's no way I can bear to eat any more of the grocery store garlic. ;-)

Here in Nc we grow Inchilliam ,Morado Giante, and metchi and they all do well.
Red toch and Transylvanian are artichoke soft necks and should do well also. (silverskin) ia a type we never had sucess with.
We are trying Asian tempest for the first time but have had sucess with (Asiatic) types so I expect it will do fine.
Hope that helps
The garlic lady

That helps a lot! Thank you!