Ronningers and Landreth Seeds have Simonetti, unless they have sold out.

Try Big Red Barn Gourmet Garlic.

http://www.bigredbarngourmetgarlic.com

They have beautiful bulbs and you can buy by the bulb instead of by the pound, and specify size! They are also very friendly and responsive. I don't see Simonetti in their online catalogue, but if you ask they may grow it next year.

TomNJ/VA

Some folks here on gardenweb sell excellent quality garlic for planting. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic for planting

Yes Mark I have yours. I need additional varieties, well not need but want. ;-)
Thanks I will check those.

No luck. :(

I do not know whether you went to the Minnesota Garlic Festival this year or not, but the quality of garlic available this year was quite impressive. All vendors have to have their garlic tested and proven free of GBN in order to be allowed to sell at the event. I consider this the worst potential threat so it is good they have that policy.

I acquired several varieties that I do not have, got a small growers discount and ended up paying around $1.50 per bulb for average to above average sized bulbs, good enough to experiment with. Some vendors had some very good sized garlic, it seemed Estonian Red was the standout of the event.

Retail garlic prices for singles ranged from $1 per bulb at the low end to $3 per bulb at the high end, most of the vendors had decent-sized single bulbs priced at $2 each. Prices by weight ranged from $7 to $9 per half pound and $10 to $15 per pound. Bulb sizes ranged from small to very large.

http://hillsideprairiegardens.com/

IMO Hillside Prairie Gardens out of eastern South Dakota had the very best quality garlic for a reasonable price. I did not see that they had Simonetti, though.

http://hawksbrain.com/blog/

Hawks Brain Garlic out of Red Wing, Minnnesota had the largest selection of varieties, but all a bit on the small side IMHO. They might have Simonetti, they would be your best bet of all the vendors that attended. Blog is a bit out of date but you should be able to get valid contact info there.

I counted 14 garlic vendors at the event. I believe they are all from Minnesota with the exception of one from South Dakota and one from Iowa. If you wanted to contact any other/all of the vendors that attended, I believe the event website has a vendor list you can work from.

http://www.sfa-mn.org/garlicfest/

I am personally very leery of purchasing seed garlic now and I would have felt comfortable purchasing garlic from any of the vendors there (but that was because I could inspect the product before purchase).

As far as I am concerned the AY phytoplasma issue is over, all garlic from this area should be safe to purchase from that standpoint. GBN is a much more serious potential issue to be concerned about and it will slowly get worse.

I will keep on the lookout for Simonetti and if I come across some decent stock I will pick some up for you.

Good luck with your search.
-Tom

I'm not pushing you minni, I just have a lot of garlic this season and i'm plugging it! :)

Thanks Tom. I didn't go to the festival. I went to the St Paul farmers market last weekend and bought some cheap garlic, but no clue on variety. Looks Asian.

Mark your garlic did well. I hear Lorz Italian is hot for a softneck.

Here is a pic of my box for planting.
{{gwi:366926}}

You could try Jubilee Produce

thanks

Hey minnie, two of my garlics came from the bulk bins at CUB right here in the Twin Cities. Sometime in May they switch suppliers and get in a very pretty striped, nice large hardneck generally with very large cloves instead of their usual jumbo white softnecks. I have some of them sprouting out in the yard right now. I happen to know the produce buyer who orders them for the Cub stores who says that pretty garlic is "Mexican Purple", whatever that really is. It somehow doesn't look to me to be an unspecified Creole, which is what Mexican Purple normally points to... IMO that is a commercial name, not really a variety name more or less like calling all the various mandarin oranges "Clementines" which is really only one type of them. Normally the garlic switch is early enough to get a modest bulb size the first summer from a spring planting and then plant back the best cloves the next fall.

I have met some folks who wait every year for the switch, because the flavor of the hardnecks Cub gets in is better than their normal whites. They stock up for culinary reasons. So that variety may well be worth having out of your own garden.

I have used the same one for four year, but I do not know if they are taking on new customers.

http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/7422.html

I thought they were not in business anymore.

I am not sure, they may have close for the season or close up for good.

I really liked them, so I am hoping they will work it out to keep growing.

I think they were wiped out by the Aster Yellows outbreak several years ago... while the site is still up, they refer to taking 2013 orders.

It's good to know that they are still preserving their collection and may resume their business at some point. I know their kids were getting to the age where they would start having to run them to this activity or that and they were excited to go on a summer vacation last year for the first time. I had planned to order 4 or 5 varieties from them last year but of the 50 or so types they did harvest and offer only 1 that I wanted was on the list so I ordered 3 types from Fillaree Farms and Estonia Red from BigRedBarn in WI (very nice bulbs but their collection is somewhat limited).

I got over 20 varieties from them, some that other people ordered, but did not pay for.

LoneJack, Please tell us why you like Fillaree & BigRedBarn.

Could you post a link?

Hi Minnie

Last year was the first year I ordered any Garlic online, previously I got all of my seed stock locally at farmer's markets. I would have preferred to order from Wegrowgarlic but as I said the types they offered last year did not include what I wanted. I was not very impressed with the garlic bulbs I ordered from Fillaree Farms (Martin's Heirloom, Siberian, and Purple Glazer) as the bulbs were not very large at 2" or so and not in great shape but they seem to be growing well although I am not impressed by the growth of the Martin's this year. On the other hand the Estonia Red 'Jumbo' bulbs I order from BigRedBarn gourmet garlic were about 2.75" and the average clove weight was over 1/2 oz. Plus I ordered 4 bulbs and they sent me 5. They are some of the largest plants in my garden right up there with Music and German extra hardy. There is now also a new online Garlic supplier located in the Ozarks area of Missouri that has some interesting types from the Czech republic that I may try this year.

Here is the link for BigRedBarn http://www.bigredbarngourmetgarlic.com/

Here is the link for MoGarlic: http://www.mogarlic.com/