In addition to getting out of those garden centers, I would advise anyone interested in Hippeastrum to get some good mail-order catalogs. You'll find literally dozens of Hippeastrum offered yearly: single, double, small, large, typical hybrids, unusual hybrids and all for about the same price more or less. The same is true with respect to crocus: the mass distribution bulb catalogs offer plenty of interesting crocuses, enough to get anyone off to a good start in this genus. Several of the bigger garden centers here in the Washington, D.C. area offer respectable selections of both Hippeastrum and crocuses yearly. So maybe in addition to getting some good mail order catalogs you should look for a better garden center, too. Garden centers can be the source of unexpected treasures, doubly so because they sometimes don't really appreciate how unusual some of the items they sell are. For instance, Crocus sieberi tricolor appeared at a local garden center over fifteen years ago, well before it made its appearance in widely distributed lists. So too did the biflorus hybrid Skyline. My stocks of Leucojum vernum carpathicum came from a local garden center. So it's always worth taking a careful look at what is being offered. And back in the bad old days, I used to be able to pick out the bulbs of Sternbergia clusiana mixed in among those of Sternbergia lutea. And if you are still bored, there is always Jane McGary's wonderful yearly list. I don't expect to find those items in the local garden centers, even on a very lucky day! Also, with respect to your "grave nomenclatural sin": what sin is that? 'Amaryllises' is not a botanical name, and I would argue that amaryllis (with a lower case initial a and no italicization) is not a proper generic name. It's a vernacular English word, one I don't hesitate to use myself when referring to the cultivated Hippeastrum hybrids. But I do have one quibble: when you say " English "amaryllis" equals botanical Latin "hippeastrum"." Make that Hippeastrum (with the capital initial H) and I'll agree. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where I'm in the throes of remaking parts of the garden - and hoping that my back holds out.