Joseph has just said with confidence something I have come to believe here in the more forgiving zone 7b, where the ground rarely freezes hard or for long if it freezes at all.
But I have been curious about WHY it seems to be so. Several guides to garlic growing advise that it
should be planted in time for some weeks of growth (the number varies so widely as to call the advice into suspicion) to happen before the first hard freeze. But in practice, this seems not to be needful; having the clove in the ground at first THAW seems to be the key thing. I figured I was just getting acceptable results from suboptimal practice, but with Joseph’s blessing of the method, I feel better about my observations now. :-)