Look for H. Johnsonii. You most likely won't find bulbs as it's a little late in the season (they are usually sold in Oct- Dec....with sale in January. Where are you in zone 8?
Kristi
Spring, TX

San Antonio. I was hoping to find a developed plant, 3 or 5 gal. size.

Whitecap,

You could order from a mail order source! Kristi is right, look for Hippeastrum 'Johnsonii' or H. 'San Antonio Rose', both are hardy in your zone and are exceptionally beautiful!

H. 'San Antonio Rose' offsets like MAD so you'll have a large clump in no time!

Josh

whitecap, they have the bulbs right now at Lowes and Wal-Mart in San Antonio. I have only seen the plants for sale at Christmas, but never in a 3 or 5 gallon size. If you plant the bulbs now, they should bloom for you in May. I soaked mine in superthrive before I planted them. Barbra

Thanks. This is pretty much as I suspected. Basically, I just want a tough and hardy one for the foliage. I doubt I'll find Johnsonii at BigBox. I'll see if I can find some bulbs at a specialty nursery.

I'm not sure you'd ever find amaryllis in a 3-5 gallon pot. Are we sure you're talking about Hippeastrum? They are usually sold as a single bulb (some may have offsets around the basal plate). My group of 20 San Antonio Rose bulbs were all off one mother bulb in a one gallon pot (they are small bulbs). I'm not usually shopping for Hippeastrum grown out, but let me know what you find in the 3-5 gallon size!
:-)
Kristi

Look in Lowe's as some of them are carrying garden amaryllis bulbs. Look in the outdoor section where they have the wooden stands with lilies, strawberries, caladiums, ect. I bought Garden pink and potted them in a community pot and they are already coming up! The picture on the bag shows a medium pink with a white star. They are 4.95 each.

I have seen bulbs at BigBox, and also a variety styled Bingo, in 6" pots. I don't believe, however, that these would give me what I'm looking for. I'm trying to replace a couple that I foolishly discarded years ago. They came with my '78 property, and survived years of utter neglect. I never watered them, but they bloomed like clockwork every spring. The best part was their strapling, knee-high foliage. The bulbs were very large, at least 3" in diameter. They did not multiply, as I recall. I came to the forum last year, and the consensus seemed to be that these must have been the Johnsonii type. That is what I would like to go with, or some type with similar characteristics. My thought about finding them in 3 or 5 gallon pots was based on my conjecture, apparently misguided, that amaryllis had pretty much the same root structure as agapanthus and crinums, which one frequently sees in large pots.

Whitecap,

H. johnsonii are old hybrids that are typically passdown plants. I'm not sure you'd ever find this at a big box store! Your best bet would be to search E-bay or specialty online nurseries.

Yucca Do sells them occasionally, here is the link below! You can try and e-mail them and see if they'll have them again soon!

http://www.yuccado.com/hippeastrum-x-johnsonii.html

Southern Bulb Company has them in stock right now, link below

http://www.southernbulbs.com/hardy-amaryllis-Hippeastrum-johnsonii/

Dancing Oaks says you can call or e-mail for availability!

http://www.dancingoaks.com/home/dok/page_564/hippeastrum_x_johnsonii.html

All these links will need to be copied and pasted, Southern Bulb Company is a nice nursery.

Good luck!
Josh

Thanks again. I just decided to place an order with Southern Bulb. Looks like I was a little confused about preferred planting times. The gentleman I spoke with said the Johnsonii is what they refer to as a "spring bulb," and the optimal planting time is now through April.