C-banded karyotypes were prepared for three of the more important garlic (Allium sativumL.) cultivars grown in New Zealand, ‘California Early’, ‘California Late’, and ‘Red Garlic’. The cultivars all have unique banding patterns with the largest bands at the sites of secondary constrictions. Further bands were located in terminal positions on different numbers of chromosomes in the three cultivars. A limited number of bands were seen in interstitial positions, especially on the nucleolar organiser (NOR) chromosomes. Centromeric bands were entirely absent. Flow cytometry was used to measure nuclear DNA amounts which were found to be the same in the three cultivars.