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Come Back March 2012
Our shopping cart is closed for the winter. We still have some seed garlic and if it keeps well over winter we will be selling it for spring planting. Check back in March 2012 to see what is available.
The navigation bar on the right
shows a few of the cultivars on the garlic varieties
pages sorted into their major groupings. They include
many heirloom and heritage garlics. The hardneck varieties
are Porcelain, Rocambole, Purple Stripe, Marbled Purple
Stripe and Glazed Purple Stripe. The other garlics are
three varieties of weakly bolting hardnecks and two
varieties of softnecks.
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| Garlic beds in early May
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In 2011 we are going to an
online shopping cart with PayPal and credit card payment.
We will begin taking orders on August 15. If you prefer
paying by cheque you may phone in your order, or mail
it in if you are prepared to accept substitutions.
Garlic originated in the wild
in Central Asia and has more than 5000 years of history
as an important horticultural crop. Since under normal
circumstances garlic does not produce true seed, there
is no cross fertilization of cultivated varieties. It
is hard to say how many genetically different garlic
clones there actually are under cultivation today. Garlic
is extremely adaptable and after a few years in a particular
locality it will take on a shape, size, colour and flavour
characteristic of its new location. So it is difficult
to tell when differences between garlic plants are environmental
and when they are genetic.
Researchers are now working to restore the fertility
of garlic. Dr. Rina Kamenetsky is one of these researchers
and we are delighted to be able to feature her article
True
Seeds in Garlic on our website.
Variety is a term that is used loosely. Sometimes it
is used colloquially to refer to each named cultivar
and sometimes it is used technically to refer to the
major groupings. Although the term is used both ways
on this website, on this page it is being used to attempt
botanically correct classification.
Hardneck and Softneck Garlic
True garlic (species:
Allium sativum) has two subspecies, softneck
(sativum) and hardneck (ophioscorodon
– ophios for short). Allium sativum
sativum has two varieties, Silverskin and
Artichoke. Softneck garlics can be planted mechanically
and so the garlics found in supermarkets are
almost all softnecks.
Our understanding of the structure of the garlic
family tree is evolving as mapping the genes
of the varieties and subvarieties continues.
Previously there were thought to be five major
groupings referred to as varieties. Hardnecks
were classified as Porcelain, Rocambole and
Purple Stripe (with the subvarieties Marbled
Purple Stripe and Glazed Purple Stripe), and
softnecks were classified as Artichokes (with
the subvarieties Creole, Asiatic and Turban).
Currently there are considered to be ten varieties,
eight ophios and two softnecks. The ophios (Allium
sativum ophioscorodon) include five true
hardneck varieties (Porcelain,
Rocambole,
Purple Stripe,
Marbled Purple
Stripe and Glazed
Purple Stripe) and three weakly bolting
hardnecks that often produce softnecks (Creole,
Asiatic and Turban).
The true hardneck varieties do well in the
cooler Canadian climates. Hardneck refers to
the scape, or flower stalk, with its topset
of bulbils. Hardnecks take a little more care
to grow because they need to be hand planted
right side up, and to have their scapes snipped
off. They repay that effort with a wealth of
large bulbs and a dazzling choice of robust
and subtle, intriguing and delicious flavours.
This information
has been gleaned from Bob Anderson’s
overview of the garlic family tree. His
article gives more information on the varieties
of garlic and the ongoing research.
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An Artichoke softneck garlic |
A Purple Stripe hardneck garlic |
Seed Garlic Varieties in 2011
New This Year
We are excited
to be able to share many new garlics with you this
year. For several years we have been jealously hoarding
our stocks of Kostyn's Red Russian until at last we
have enough to sell, as we expect it to be a hit with
growers and gardeners. We have a new Rocambole with
outstanding flavour, French Rocambole. Another Rocambole,
Newfoundland Heritage, is said th have been grown
in Newfoundland for three or four hundred years. Altogether
there are about 95 new cultivars, most of them from
Al Picketts of Eureka Garlic on Prince Edward Island.
We haven't had a chance to taste very many of them
yet!
Help Making Your Selection
If you find the selection of garlics bewildering allow
us to make some suggestions.
Hardiest Garlics
We consider the Porcelain
variety to be the hardiest and recommend it for novices
in cold climates. Leningrad, Music, Northern Quebec
and Susan Delafield are very popular with backyard
gardeners and commercial growers alike.
After the Porcelains we would recommend all the other
true hardneck varieties - Purple
Stripe, Marbled Purple Stripe, Glazed Purple Stripe
and Rocambole.
The standard Purple Stripes, Chesnok Red and Persian
Star, are popular with growers because you get more
plantable cloves per bulb. We highly recommend our
new Marbled Purple Stripe, Kostyn's Red Russian, for
its flavour and its vigorous growth. Glazed Purple
Stripes have fragile wrappers which makes the
timing of harvest critical.
Rocamboles are
more fussy about watering than the other varieties;
they do not tolerate overwatering well. If that is
not a problem where you are we recommend getting some
because of their outstanding flavour. Favourites are
Baba Franchuk’s,German Red, Korean Purple, Puslinch,
and Spanish Roja. They have similar richness of flavour
with Spanish Roja being the mildest.
In cold climates we recommend winter mulch for insurance
against damage caused by alternate freezing and thawing
which may tear away the tender new roots.
Full Selection
If your climate is moderate
you may be able to grow the weakly bolting hardnecks
and softnecks more easily than we can in our zone
4. In addition to a selection of hardnecks recommended
for hardiness you can choose from the other garlics
we have. Most of these are new to us from Eureka Garlic
and we do not know a lot about them. The recommendations
below are from the ones we have been growing for many
years.
There is great diversity in the
weak bolting hardnecks. Thai is one of our earliest
and mildest garlics and Tibetan is very late and strong.
Wildfire is another of our hottest. Sweet Haven is
a versatile garlic, doing well under diverse conditions.
Sicilian Gold and Formidable are strains of the Artichoke
softneck variety that our customers recommend raw
in salads. Western Rose is a tiny softneck that is
mild, tasty and long-keeping.
About Size
As a policy we do not push our varieties to produce
the largest bulbs they are capable of. We use water
and organic fertilizers in moderation. The resulting
garlic has a longer storage life and is in better
shape for adapting itself to your growing conditions.
Garlic Bulbils
If left on the plant to mature the topset or scape
of a hardneck garlic will produce a number of bulbils
which can be planted. This is a way of rapidly increasing
your garlic planting stock. For details see our
Garlic Bulbils page. We begin taking bulbil orders
in May and until the scapes are cut sometime in June.
If you are interested please contact
us.
Printable Catalogue
Descriptions of the varieties
and ordering information are here on these web pages
which will be tied in to our online shopping cart.
In July we will create a printable list of the garlics
for sale in 2011.
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