I noticed something about neck bulbils of softneck garlic, and I don't see this mentioned anywhere. They are basically scapes that grow but only short, they stop at some point and just make the bulbils there. So I would call softenck as 'potentially short hardneck garlic'.
I had it this year on both Germidour and Messidrome. Quite annoying really, since you can't remove them like you can fully grown scapes.
Messidrome has been for me a great variety, germidour is just much more fussy about anything, it doesn't like the summer heat, and splits the wrappers easily. Also messidrome keeps great, easily into april. The taste is just average however.

Here are the late scaping ones from Sari: Lautrec and Kolkja Purple.
They didn't gain a lot in size this year, but Kolkja Purple did produce several very large rounds, so those may jump start some full size bulbs next year. In any case they are growing up faster than the others in that family which I grew out ( Persian Star and Chesnok Red) so I'm well pleased.
Lautrec is a real surprise. I've been planting them in fall with the others, and they don't seem to mind it a bit. They are just as big as the Kolkja Purple. I have to remember to take these up when the leaves say so, as this year they had some cloves outside the main bulb without a wrapper. Not a problem since they're for planting anyway. They didn't produce any rounds this time, and no real pattern in clove numbers which I've seen in others, that is the conditions in a certain year may cause them to make bulbs with many or fewer cloves. Lautrec has both types this year, as well as a number with the odd clove outside the main wrapper. I will also mention that I decided to spring plant the Ziemiai and Topinky which were down to two rounds each, instead of the perils of the garlic beds. I put them in a garden bed near the house which gets some watering and attention. They were so late emerging though - not until midsummer! that they are still green and not at all ready to be moved. I'm thinking to give them a 'feral' year, that is, leave them in the ground and let them overwinter undisturbed, to produce some bulbs next season. Other garlics that were left to sort themselves out eventually got comfortable and large after a few years - this is how I got Bonavista. I think it is a gentler way to let them adapt to our climate. What do you think?

I was just looking again, to compare the climate conditions in our two places. Our temperature regimes year round are almost identical, and so is the growing season, very similar or just the same. Even the amount of solar energy is quite similar, in spite of the difference in day lengths.
What is really different and significant for garlic is the precipitation. We are windier too but they really don't care about that.
We get more precip overall and most of it is in fall and winter, with dryer conditions during the growing season. I do water them in summer if it gets overly dry, so that doesn't count, it can only be the winter. We get a mixture of snow and rain during those months, so quite a lot of wet thaws, compared to your relatively dry winter with mainly snow. So this is probably the best explanation of those varieties that didn't adapt quickly to my climate from yours. Maybe this is something for you to look out for [mention]svalli[/mention] in case climate change brings you more rain in the winter. We have certainly had some very wet winters since this project started, and that was the hardest on some varieties but others have tolerated it really well.
https://weatherspark.com/y/29672/Averag ... Year-Round
https://weatherspark.com/y/87765/Averag ... Year-Round

Looks good Bower. That Lautrec is a creole, which seem to be tricky to grow in areas with cold winters. They tend to make those big outer cloves without wrapper. I have an other creole named Morado, which has usually formed scapes, but this year most of them grew like softnecks with the weird shape as Lautrec. I think that I will stop trying to grow the creoles.

I have never intentionally left bulbils in the ground, because I grow those in containers. I do not have good place to grow the bulbils undisturbed. I know many people do it, but I would be afraid of loosing those to weeds and varieties getting mixed.

I grow garlic actually in the field in Alajärvi and only bulbils in Vaasa. Alajärvi is 120 km inland, so it has a bit colder winters and hotter summers than in Vaasa, where sea evens the temperature fluctuation. South side of Finland is getting the same problem as you with winters being wet and mild. Last winter some had garlic start to grow in December and then the shoots froze in February.

I have no doubt that even our variable seasons are departing further and further from normal, whether hot or cold. We are seeing more "blocking" patterns too, where one kind of weather remains stationary over the area for days on end, instead of quickly moving on. The heat this summer has pushed our usual 'growing degree days' way forward. My friend got a fantastic early harvest of large bulbs at the farm. Their deep rich soil didn't wash out as mine did. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the garlic will do in the old garden where organic matter was dug into the clay, instead of building raised beds on top.
Here's wishing you a good winter for the garlic crop, Sari!