The big box stores either carry only the few most popular, out of patent, varieties,which they can sell fairly cheaply,or they put the same few varieties in non draining containers and sell them,blooming,for more money. Needles to say, the bulbs rot in the sopping wet conditions. There are many mail order and internet only companies, which sell dry bulbed Hippeastrum,primed to bloom six to eight weeks after planting. to see pictures of some of the many hippeastrum,try landspro.com davesgarden.com gardenweb.com . Also, almost all of the sellers carry pictures of what is available. There are several yellow/ greens and many orange varieties,single and double flowered.
Del
--- On Sat, 11/28/09, Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com> wrote:
From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com>
Subject: [pbs] holiday Amaryllis (Hippeastrum)
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Saturday, November 28, 2009, 7:17 AM
Years ago I had a solid orange-flowered Hippeastrum, and years before
that I had a yellow-green flowered Hippeastrum. I felt a bit nostalgic
and went shopping for them and couldn't find anything remotely like what
I wanted in any of the stores.
Was I just randomly lucky to find them in stores years ago? Or have
those varieties disappeared from general commerce? All I found in the
shops this week are white, pink, and red ones. I also found a blue
poinsettia which just looked bizarre.
Dennis in Cincinnati