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Garlic bulbs for planting

Updated: October 2026

You are on amazon.co.uk trying to tell a planting clove from a kitchen bulb and from a pinch of seed. Garlic bulbs for planting should be a named clove you can inspect, and the title, the count, and the stars do not always describe the same parcel. The [plant garlic comparison](/hub/root-vegetables/plant-garlic) holds the eleven listings in this set, from £2.99 for ramsons seed to £15.99 for six mixed bulbs. This page is the sequence of checks. The Products Compared editorial team read those amazon.co.uk listings and public UK notes. We did not grow a trial row, and a qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

You are on amazon.co.uk trying to tell a planting clove from a kitchen bulb and from a pinch of seed.

Our top picks

Live Seeds Live Seeds Solent Wight 20 cloves

Best overall

Live Seeds Live Seeds Solent Wight 20 cloves
10.0/10about £5.99
View offer
Live Seeds Live Seeds Provence Wight 30 cloves

Preis-Tipp

Live Seeds Live Seeds Provence Wight 30 cloves
8.6/10about £8.49
View offer
Carbeth Plants Carbeth Germidour 4 bulbs

Alternative

Carbeth Plants Carbeth Germidour 4 bulbs
7.2/10about £9.99
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.Bulbs, loose cloves, or true seed
  2. 2.A name you can look up
  3. 3.Counts, organic lines, and stars
  4. 4.What to refuse at the door

Bulbs, loose cloves, or true seed

Three forms sit in this comparison, and they are not interchangeable. Whole bulbs, such as Carbeth’s Cristo, Germidour, and Marco packs at £9.99 for four, let you split the bulb and reject a soft clove. Loose cloves, such as Live Seeds Provence Wight at £8.49 for a stated 30, or Solent Wight at £10.99 for 40, are already separated. Provence reviewers do not all describe the same parcel: some received whole bulbs, and some counts were below or above 30. True seed is a different plant. Just Seed at £3.25 is about 100 seeds of ramsons, Allium ursinum. The Nika packet at £2.99 is the same species, and its title and items field disagree on the count. Reviewers who wanted cloves say the Just Seed packet holds pin-head seed. That is correct for ramsons and useless if you wanted a summer bulb. The wild garlic seeds page covers shade and the slow wait.

A name you can look up

The second check is a variety you can match to a public note. The Garlic Farm classes Provence Wight as an artichoke softneck of about 6–10 cloves, planted October to January, and Solent Wight as a silverskin softneck of about 10–18 cloves, planted October to February. Carbeth’s seller calls Germidour a softneck adapted to British conditions. The RHS plant page calls Cristo a French softneck of about 12 cloves. The Carbeth Cristo bullets do not say softneck. They do say autumn or spring, and 15 cm between cloves in rows 30 cm apart. Russian Giant, 60 cloves at £12.49, does not state the species. A mix fails this check. The three-bulb pack at £9.99 and the six-bulb pack at £15.99 may include Marco, Dario, and Germidour, and the varieties may change. Reviewers on the three-bulb listing disagree about labels. Marco’s title says UK gardens and the bullets talk about roasting.
Live Seeds Live Seeds Solent Wight 20 cloves

Testsieger

Live Seeds Live Seeds Solent Wight 20 cloves
10.0/10about £5.99
View offer

Counts, organic lines, and stars

Read the count in the title and again in the pieces line. Provence says 30 cloves. The larger Solent pack says 40. The smaller Solent pack says 20 at £5.99. None of those lines is a guarantee, and the Provence reviews already show the gap. “Organic” on these dumps is an attribute, not a named certificate. The 20-clove Solent listing and Russian Giant both carry an Organic attribute, and neither title names a UK certifier. Disease resistance on Provence is an attribute, with no certificate in the file. Stars need the same suspicion. Cristo, Germidour, and Marco each show 3.6 from 278, and the review text is one shared block, with a line that names Cristo. That is not three trials. The 20-clove Solent line is 5.0 from one rating and no text. Provence at 4.3 from 844, and the 40-clove Solent at 4.4 from 70, are the culinary packs whose reviews belong to that listing. The best seed garlic page turns that into a conditional pick.

What to refuse at the door

Set aside a clove that is soft, mouldy, or wet, and use Amazon’s refund route if the bag has already failed. The RHS wants firm planting stock. Leave the skins on, and do not plant into fresh manure. Depth is a different job. Carbeth’s three-bulb line says 2–3 cm, Russian Giant says 5–10 cm, and the RHS plant page uses about 2.5 cm of cover. Use the packet’s number when it prints one. If the bed is waterlogged, or white rot is already in the soil, use a pot of fresh compost instead.

Common questions

Should you buy garlic bulbs or loose cloves?
Buy whole bulbs when you want to split them and reject a soft clove. Buy loose cloves when the listing states a count and you accept that the parcel may not match it. Neither form is ramsons seed, which will not make a culinary bulb this summer.
How do you tell culinary garlic from ramsons seed?
Culinary garlic here is Allium sativum, sold as cloves or bulbs for full sun. Ramsons is Allium ursinum, sold as seed for partial shade. If the title says seeds or ramsons, you are not holding a Solent Wight bulb.
Does organic on the listing mean certified?
Not by itself. The 20-clove Solent pack and Russian Giant show Organic as an attribute, and neither title names a UK certifier. If you need a named scheme, the listing has to show it. These dumps do not.
Why do three varieties show the same star rating?
Cristo, Germidour, and Marco each display 3.6 from 278 reviews, and the review text matches, including a line that names Cristo. Treat that as one shared block. A shared star line cannot separate the three Carbeth names.
Is a 5.0 from one review meaningful?
It means one rating and, on the 20-clove Solent listing at £5.99, no review text. That is not a trial. Russian Giant at £12.49 has no customer-review line, which is a gap, not a score of zero from unhappy buyers.
What is wrong with supermarket garlic?
The RHS and Which? advise against planting supermarket bulbs. They can carry virus, and onion white rot can persist in soil for years, with no chemical cure for home gardeners. Buy a clove sold for planting. Do not compost plants you suspect of white rot, and do not move that soil to a clean bed.

Related pages

How to plant garlic

Plant garlic in pots

Plant garlic

Best seed garlic UK: named cloves and what to skip

Wild garlic seeds: ramsons seed, not a garlic clove

Sources

Public UK sources, read with the amazon.co.uk listings compared on this page. Shelf prices and star lines are those listing figures. The Garlic Farm price is a specialist benchmark, not an amazon.co.uk row.

  1. RHS: How to grow garlic (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  2. RHS: Onion white rot (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  3. RHS: Leek rust (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  4. RHS: Allium ursinum (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  5. The Garlic Farm: Solent Wight seed (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  6. The Garlic Farm: Provence Wight seed (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  7. Which?: How to grow garlic (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  8. Gardeners' World: How to grow garlic (retrieved 16 October 2026)