Many say it takes nine months for garlic to reach optimal size. Some say it needs to start in the fall in all but the coldest climates. And yeah, I guess it could have been too wet.

Nanelle, the maturation period for galic starts when it begins regrowing in the spring. That's why you could fall plant 1/3 of a variety in, say, Sept., another third in Oct. and the last in November, and they would all mature at about the same time.

Sublime, at a guess I's say it was a combination of things. Most likely there was too much water. But this combines with letting it go too long as well. By the time all the leaves had died back, the outer wrappings had dissolved and the bulb rotted away.

Next time try harvesting when only about half the leaves have browned. And, if possible, make sure the plant stays dry for a couple of weeks before that.

I agree, a fall planting is done to get big leaves through spring. Once you start seeing the center 'scape', appearing is when garlic starts to form its cloves and main bulb. Some of mine were in a low area that seemed to collect too much water, so the tops died off prematurely. I pulled up a couple and found nothing but roots and a slight bulge at the base of the plants. No scapes had been sent up yet, and they must have died back due to the extreme water in the area. Needless to say most of the rest are now just forming some thin stalks at the centers which will enlarge into scapes. These will form flower and/or seed heads and then should be removed. During that scape forming time is when the garlic cloves start to form in the soil. Mine were planted back in October of 2004 and will be harvested by maybe July of 2005 if all goes well...
Good luck for next time..

Thanks for the help guys. I do think it was too wet, but hadn't thought that it may have already matured and just rotted away...definitely a possibility.
I think I'm going to actually try to order a head or look for some purple stripe in my local market for next year.
I only recently realized that my brown thumb had turned green, I'm still learning.

In Z 9 softneck types seem to grow much better than in my Z 6. You might want to try getting specific garlic types from a seed/bulb supplier as opposed to using store bought produce ones. Usually, You have a much larger selection to choose from when you buy from a seed source, instead of guessing at what will come out of a produce type.