There are probably more than 1000 cultivars of garlic grown worldwide. They vary in colour, size, pungency and flavour. Often cultivars are named after their place of origin. Increasingly today, seed lists for home gardeners in Australia include numerous different cultivars. This website is designed to attempt to make sense of garlic in Australia. We will be adding cultivars all the time and welcome feedback through the contact page about anything to do with garlic cultivars and groups. Even when much more comprehensive this website will by no means be an exhaustive list of cultivars available and with the increased interest in garlic and new importations it is highly likely that more cultivars will become available and need to be added. To find out more about the characteristics of each cultivar, click on the cultivar names below.
In Australia there is huge confusion around garlic names. So if you can determine what group a garlic belongs to, you will at least have an idea of whether it will grow in your region or not, approximately when it needs to be planted and harvested, how long it will store, and what the flavour will be probably be like. This cultivar will share these characteristics with the other cultivars in that group. Increasingly growers should be able to tell you what groups their cultivars belong to, and this too will help reduce confusion. To find out more about the characteristics of each group, click on the group headings below.
We hope this website will help to add to garlic knowledge in Australia. Please note all text and photographs are covered by copyright. Please ask if you want to use any photographs or information. In the interests of furthering garlic knowledge requests will not be unreasonably refused as long as the use is not-for-profit.