Many garden centers in the south carry them. You might also look at Southern Bulbs.
K

Thanks K. I think Southern Bulbs was one of the sites I checked out a few months ago.

There's a very nice lady in Texas that I bought some cheaper Johnsonii bulbs a few years back. She has a "plantation" of them in her garden. LOL They were true Johnsoniis when they bloomed but when I planted them outside in my garden which is a zone 6/7, they did not survive. I'll try to search her email.

Thanks so much Mariava7, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry to hear that yours didn't survive.

Thank you so much Maria! That's a beautiful flowerbed of amaryllis! I send her an email. Thanks again!

Here's another picture of her Johnsoniis that I found in one of her emails.

Wow those are amazing! I definitely want one in my garden lol.

They grow wild on my friend's land in Willis, TX. He has them all over his 35-acre plot of land!
K

Maria , could you send me her email too ? They are so gorgeous I'd like to try them in the garden.

If you want other hardy amaryllis, and are willing to wait a year or two for plants to reach a flowering size, Wellspring Gardens sells H. ackermannii and Voodoo for $5 each. I recently ordered these and they were small potted plants, which, I was told, were produced by tissue culture. The bulbs were about the size of a large grape, so I will have wait a while. They were packaged very well with the leaves arriving intact.

Thanks so much for that info Bill. I didn't know there were more cold hardy amaryllis. Right now I have some Vittatum hybrids growing my garden. I bookmarked Wellsping Gardens.

Thank you Maria.

Macrolemys , thanks for the information . I am always looking for 'hardy ones' . I ordered a Voodoo bulb on ebay UK recently for this purpose , I will plant it outdoors in late spring. I have another hippeastrum bought as H X acramanii , the name is almost the same , but my flowers are very different :
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Dear colleagues, experts, I have a question for you - what is the real Hippeastrum Johnsonii?
Because even bulbsociety.org have two pictures and they are different. However, one - it's an old picture, but it's another photo. The first has an almost tubular flower petals ruffled and center petals short white stripes.
The second flower is wide open, without corrugation and strips almost reach the tips of the petals.
The question is, which of these is the real Johnsonii?

The oldest documentation of Johnsonii that I have seen a picture of is in Veronica Reed's book. Picture 3-1

I usually see johnsonii as the tubular form similar to the photo that Maria posted. I have attached the link to a relevant discussion of it on this forum. My conclusion from it is that many of the plants considered to be johnsonii are self fertile, and produces seedlings similar to the parent, so it is difficult to know if a plant is truly a clone of the original hybrid produced nearly 200 years ago. I find H. ackermannii to be even more confusing. There are alternate spellings, and some photos show it as all red while others as a red flower with white stripe. If anyone has insight into this cultivar, I am interested to learn more.

Here is a link that might be useful: johnsonii discussion

"They were true Johnsoniis when they bloomed but when I planted them outside in my garden which is a zone 6/7, they did not survive. I'll try to search her email."

That's curious, if you are really in zn 7 according to the new map. I've grown H. X johnsonii outdoors in the environs of DC & Baltimore since the late 90s and they've always been hardy. Although in the past few years I've had trouble getting them to bloom because I have a limited number of spots with the absolute 100% sun exposure it seems to require up here.

Maybe try planting them deeply along a south wall if you have one.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Fri, Jan 17, 14 at 17:03

I have the h. johnsonii here such:
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This post was edited by oleg9grower on Fri, Jan 17, 14 at 18:01

Yes I was quite disappointed when the johnsonii bulbs I planted did not make it. They leafed out spring/summer but did not come back the next spring. I dug them up and they were rotten. Perhaps it's the clayish soil with lots of rocks we have here in this part of Virginia (southwestern part). I live by the mountains with 1,407 ft of elevation. I do have a south wall but would now really rather plant other plants that are truly hardy here and don't require me to amend my soil. My back is getting too old for this. LOL

If johnsonii really survives in Baltimore/DC area, then I could purchase some bulbs of it and send to my brother in Balto to plant in their garden. My sis-in-law would be ecstatic!

agapanthe64,
This acramannii (pulcherrima) saved since 1920 reproduces only vegetatively. From Russia:

http://i002.radikal.ru/1109/05/e15c80845584.jpg

This post was edited by oleg9grower on Sat, Jan 18, 14 at 4:04

Oh Maria! Please send me the address too.

Thank you and big hugs!

-Blanca

As for other hardy cultivars, Apple blossom is hardy here in Raleigh NC (7b). Plant Delights Nursery has a large area dedicated to field trials of various plants and has found Charisma, San Antonio Rose, Voodoo, and Wedding Dance to do well here (in addition to johnsonii and ackermannii). They mention on their web page that Wedding Dance even survived to -1 F (-18 C). Of these varieties, it appears that only Charisma and Wedding dance are easily found for sale as forced bulbs.
If anyone has information on other varieties that are known to be relatively hardy, I would like to hear about them.

Bill

I have 3 Apple Blossom amaryllis, 1 is planted in the yard and the others are indoors. I planted Red Lion and Minerva outside to as an experiment. I have a Vittatum hybrid that's supposed to be cold hardy. It hasn't bloomed in 2 or 3 years now. I managed to find some old pics of it. It has a light fragrance as well.
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I don't mean to change the subject but while we're on the theme of huge numbers of the same bulbs growing down south (in this case Florida) I am wondering if this too could be a species and if not why are are vast amounts of these bulbs identical.

Two years in a row I bought these bulbs from EBay and there is also another seller who is currently selling them and calls them an heirloom. Since I originally bought from the Florida location and the bulbs were super healthy with no virus if I were to buy again I would buy from her but I'm sure the other seller's bulbs would be fine also.

As you can see these clump up like crazy as the H. Jonsonii do and I'm quite sure these are all from offsets. I tried to self and do a few crosses on mine last year with no positive results.
But of course one try does mean that they won't self.

This is the seller's pictures used for the listing of these bulbs.

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The bulbs can be gigantic

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Does the term heirloom mean that they will always reproduce identically from seed as a species does?

Donna

Hi Donna,
I don't think that this is necessarily true about heirloom varieties if they have been passed along from cuttings or offsets, but should be true for heirlooms that are repeatedly propagated by seed. Suppose you did the following experiment: (1) self-pollinate any self-fertile hybrid, (2) choose one offspring and grow it until it flowers (3) self-pollinate that plant, (4) repeat that for a few generations. As you do this, you will get plants that progressively look more and more like the previous generation, but they will not necessarily look like the original hybrid. Also each time you repeat this experiment with a new seed from very first parent, the end result should be somewhat different. These lines of inbred plants are referred to as recombinant inbred lines. Passing along heirlooms should act in much the same way. I get a bulb from a friend, and it gets selfed because there are no other plants with which to cross. Some seedlings establish in my garden, and I give one to another friend, etc. Also, you can get similar results by performing crosses within a small group of plants over multiple generations, as long as no new plants or pollen are introduced into the population. So even if you are not strict in only growing a single seedling from the previous generation, you will eventually get plants that are reproduce true from seed.

Bill

Bill

Oleg : my version of acramanii is said to be a cross between aulicum and psittacinum , I grow it since many years , certainly due to aulicum parentage it flowers in summer and sometimes autumn. the fower are up faced. As it is said to be relatiley hardy I planted some in the garden last summer to test.

Donna , when I discovered your post about this heirloom bulb last year, as you added a link, I bought some bulbs to the same seller too , and she offered me some extra seeds from self pollinisation so it is possible. I have to thank you, it is a very interesting variety.The young bulbs are very vigourous and grow fast. I also planted one of those bulbs outside for testing. It is still all right but we haven't got very frost temperatures for the moment.

Macro : I grow a very hardy one for more than 10 years , but I got it as a mislabelled , it should be a very common one, maybe it is Faro ? Needs confirmation.

Also Baby Star is said to be very hardy , but I never can find the real variety , each time I order one, I get a Lily Star instead.

I am wondering too if the clumper varieties could be hardy , they are so easy to grow, multiplying fast... So I am trying a Lovely Garden in the garden since this winter , and I bought a White Garden for the same purpose.

Here's the hardy unknown :

Very interesting discussion of "heirloom". I suppose I use it to mean reliable passalong whose parentage is lost to time. But maybe that is an incorrect usage?

That's a gorgeous picture Donna. It isn't unusual to see big rows like that, especially in older neighborhoods here. My guess is they are identical because they weren't seed propagated, just many, many offsets. The growing season here is long, so offsetting rate is fast. In maybe 3 years, a single bulb can produce 10-15 offsets, and the offsets grow to full size much faster than seed grown bulb because they are getting to take advantage of nutrients from the mother bulb's foliage and root system. Here's an example. This was a single bulb 2 years ago:
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I got my 'Naughty Lady' starts from a retired couple with a yard that had a row of bulbs like that. I knocked and introduced myself and asked if they'd share an offset with me. I would have been happy to have 1. They took my name and told me they'd give me a call when it was time to divide & thin after blooming finished. Their yearly thinning removes hundreds of bulbs, as their yard is at saturation. They gave me approximately 50! I was absolutely overwhelmed! So you can easily then imagine that I plant those 50 bulbs in a row and after 3 years, assuming you get maybe 10 offsets from each bulb - that's a row of 500 bulbs!

Here's my Johnsonii. I got them from Southern Bulb Co, and they seem to be true. They are fragrant, and do not set seed (have tried every variety I have), but their pollen is very good for placing on other varieties.

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agapanthe64,
the type aÃÂkramanii that you has - another such as in the photo: http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/1461054/blog#post307284560

This post was edited by oleg9grower on Tue, Jan 28, 14 at 20:01

Remember my post of the one H.Papilio bulb in a pot... It was a huge pot... And in late Sept 2012 we split off ~70 bulbs!
K

BUMP!

Did any of you who asked for the johnsonii source get to contact her?

Hi Maria,

I did. Thanks again!

Cheers,

Blanca

Thanks for the update girlfriend! Diane just asked for her infos and I just wanted to know if that email of hers still works. Hope you all get good johnsonii bulbs. I remember getting some nice ones from her before that bloomed true.

Happy Mother's Day to you all!
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This post was edited by mariava7 on Sun, May 11, 14 at 0:25

I emailed her but I never heard from her.

Very beautiful Maria, Japanese bulbs? Let me guess; Salmon Taenia on the left, Bonfire on the bottom and the top one I would take a guess at the correiense hybrid?? My correiense hybrid rotted and they didn't have any more so they refunded my money.

Donna

Southern Bulbs is a very good source as well. They have a website. They are just starting to carry spring bloomers for fall planting. I'll see Chris tomorrow. If you are near Houston, go meet him at the Arbor Gate.

These are my favorite bulb in my gardens. We were very lucky, when we bought our house, there were hundreds already planted. They have been here for some time with the size of the bulbs. I am now hoping to find other varieties of hardy amaryllis to try out. They seem to do really well in the Ga. clay soil we have.

Michael if you ever have an extra bulb to trade, I'd love to work out a trade with you if that's ok?

If you have pictures, I would love to see them! That sounds like an amazing sight.

@blackwillow87 You have an inbox message from me. @JoshY I do not have photos of the original plantings. I sold many on eBay. It was not my favorite plant for some time because after the flowers are gone, there is not much else to it. The strappy leaves are pretty on embankments though. I may have a few photos in my gallery (CLICK HERE) here on GW (I REALLY need to look into updating these!)

Hello everyone, i got this as H x johnsonii, but looking at your photos here it is very different. May i know what is this variety? I hope someone will still see this as the end of the thread is still 2015. Thank you very much.

Andrea, I don't know what this is but, it is lovely variation!! Where did you get this? It appears to have many flowers per stalk but I can't tell for sure as I think I see two scapes.

Donna

Andrea, I don't know what this is but, it is a lovely variation!! Where did you get this? It appears to have many flowers per stalk but I can't tell for sure as I think I see two scapes.

Donna

Andrea, I suggest you start a new thread asking for an ID.

Well, this thread is bumped now.

It's amazing how many "wrong" plants are being sold as H. X johnsonii now.

Though according to rules of botanical nomenclature, it's acceptable to name self-pollinated F2 clones as H. X johnsonii, too.

I suspect the initial burst of these plants in the late 1990s were tissue cultures of the "original" clone. Probably by a Florida wholesaler. Though I cannot prove it I saw a large group at a nursery in Virginia Beach in maybe 1998 and they were completely uniform. That was around the time Plant Delights started selling them too...and I cannot believe in the volumes that they sell, they didn't have tissue cultured ones. Since then various people started growing out seedlings and selling them, would could be self pollinated or out-crossed. The real one has the sharply delineated white stripe.