It will need at least 4 to 6 hours of sun in order to bloom and grow well. All of mine are in the ground in full sun. I agree, it is rare to see places selling the bulbs...sometimes a nursery will have a single bulb potted up for sale. I see that you are in zone 8a....most crinums are cold hardy up to zone 7 and some are hardy to zone 5.A couple years ago, I was rearranging stuff in a bed and dug up a huge clump of Crinum asiaticum....since I wasn't sure where they were going, I just dumped the clump into a black plastic pot....and got busy with other things...fast forward to today....they are still sitting in the pot, under the edge of a live oak...and this is their second totally unprotected winter....still green and growing. I think yours would probably do so as well.
