Five garlic varieties are sourced for NZ temperate gardens through Koanga Institute, and only three of them are actually garlic. The other two are worth growing in their own right, but if you're after real culinary garlic bulbs, know which is which before you plant.
The Comparison
| Variety | Type | Harvest timing | Notable for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocombole Early White | True garlic (hardneck) | Earliest of the three, ahead of main-crop cultivars | Strong flavour, pearly white skin, edible flower spikes |
| Rocombole Early Red | True garlic (hardneck) | Same early timing as Early White | Red-skinned twin of Early White, flattish bulb shape, strong Farmers Market appeal |
| Rocombole Ruby Red | True garlic (hardneck) | Between the early Rocamboles and later main-crop types | Dark red skin, vigorous grower |
| Elephant Garlic | Not true garlic — a leek relative | Same April-May planting window as the others | Only variety in this set unaffected by garlic rust; huge bulbs, edible flower spike and bulbils |
| Society Garlic | Not true garlic — ornamental allium | Perennial, not harvested as a bulb crop | Drought-tolerant, purple edible flowers, garlic flavour without the aftertaste |
All five are Koanga Institute heirloom, open-pollinated varieties — there's no hybrid garlic in this dataset at all, which matters if you're planning to save your own cloves for next season's planting (garlic propagates from cloves rather than true seed either way — see the guide to saving seed in NZ for how that works across different crops).
The Three True Garlics
Rocombole Early White and Rocombole Early Red are effectively the same variety in two skin colours — both from the Henry Harrington Southland Collection, both hardneck Rocamboles with a distinctive flattish bulb and one ring of large cloves around a central flowering stem, which makes them easy to peel in the kitchen. Both harvest earliest of the main-crop garlics sourced here. Early Red is noted specifically for its Farmers Market appeal around the holiday season, if that's relevant to why you're growing it.
Rocombole Ruby Red is a separate, vigorous dark-red-skinned Rocombole that harvests between the two Early varieties and the later main-crop types more generally — useful if you want to stagger your garlic harvest rather than pulling everything at once, though note this site doesn't currently source a true late-season main-crop variety to complete that spread.
All three are hardneck types, which means they send up a central flower stem (the scape) that's worth removing while young to put the plant's energy into the bulb rather than the flower — standard hardneck management, not specific to any one of these three.
The Two That Aren't Garlic
Elephant Garlic looks and tastes broadly garlic-like but is botanically a leek. That distinction is the whole reason to grow it here: it's the only variety in this comparison genuinely unaffected by garlic rust, so it's worth a spot in a garden that's had rust trouble with true garlic before — see Rust and White Rot in NZ Garlic if that's a problem you're dealing with. It also grows considerably larger than true garlic, produces an edible flower spike, and can throw off bulbils and "mother bulbs" that regrow into full bulbs the following year.
Society Garlic isn't a bulb crop at all — it's a perennial, drought-tolerant ornamental allium grown for its purple flowers as much as its foliage, and Koanga's own description sells the appeal directly: "you get the garlic flavour without the garlic breath." It divides and spreads like a clump-forming perennial rather than being lifted and cured like true garlic. Include it if you want a garlic-adjacent edible flower in the garden, not as a substitute for a real garlic harvest.
Planting for This Zone
All five varieties share the same NZ temperate planting window: cloves go in April to May, spaced roughly 10–15cm apart on the diagonal, about 5cm deep, with harvest coming November to December — around seven months from planting to harvest. This timing sits in the middle of NZ's three zones rather than at either extreme: sub-tropical gardens plant earliest (March–April) because mild winters give hardneck garlic less natural cold-chilling to trigger clove formation, while cool/mountain gardens plant latest (May–June, closer to the winter solstice) to make the most of a longer, colder chill period. A temperate garden doesn't need to chase either extreme — the standard April–May window is the right target without adjustment either way.
Work compost into light, well-drained soil ahead of planting, and mulch after planting to suppress weeds — every cultivar's sowing notes agree on this regardless of type. Elephant Garlic's notes add a specific harvest cue worth applying to the whole bed: stop watering once the tops start browning, and lift before the leaves have fully died back rather than after, since bulbs left too long in the ground can start splitting.
Ready to plan your full garlic bed against the calendar? Check the NZ Temperate Planting Calendar →.