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True garlic (Allium sativum) is commonly divided into two subspecies: softneck and hardneck.
Then there are are 2 groupings of softneck garlic and 8 groupings of hardneck garlic, totaling 10 major groups of garlic.
Within each group are various named strains (cultivars), adding up to roughly 600 cultivars that currently exist in the world (with about 120 of them originating in Central Asia, making that region the epicenter of garlic biodiversity).
But in the United States, we usually see far less than that in our garden catalogs, and the garlic we do have access to for home cultivation are somewhat climate-specific.
The good news is you can grow several different varieties of garlic each season (even mixing softneck and hardneck types if you’re in the right climate) and they won’t cross-pollinate.
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