I came across the Tomatoville forums recently and in the Alliums sub-forum, there was a post from someone explaining that the orientation of the garlic clove at planting time determines the direction of the leaves direction. I believe it's the back side of the clove closest to the center.

Like many others, I never paid attention to the orientation other than making sure the basel plate side is down. Does anyone recall the post I'm referring to? Thanks!

Yes, the thread is still active, last post was only a couple of hours ago. I planted some in the same orientation not that long ago and they have come up with the leaves in the same orientation as stated in that thread

Here ya go: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=50154

Interesting. I never knew that.

I never knew that either - but trust Tom to figure out this amazing thing! Since reading about it I checked the orientation of leaves on the garlic I planted last fall, and sure enough they are random. So this is a genuine effect.

So what is the best orientation? It sounds like Tom does his perpendicular to the row for max sunlight. I was thinking slightly off parallel (10deg instead of 90deg) mainly so that I can move my watering wand easily up/down the row to water the garlic. This way, it does not get tangled in the leaves.

I never knew about it either. I just made sure the root side was down. I am going to try Tom's method in the Fall and see how it works out for me.
Thank you for the link. I haven't been over to the sister-station in a while.

Someone kindly provided the image from that thread in the other forum so I'll post it for everyone's benefit. This is what his garlic patch looks like:

I never paid attention to this, either. Maybe I'll try this next season, to see if it makes a difference with mine.

Certainly works folks, I planted some at different orientations deliberately and one can see how they align easily. Will get a photo shortly