Thanks bunches, this is still exciting though. If they aren't completely pink I'll be happy. By the way they are all sold out at the Walmart by me.

I also bought Wally's blue lagoon peony. (3pkg) I had to start them in the house because they had shoots....I have buds and will post pictures as soon as they blossom...I was so shocked. I will be doing a happy dance if they are as pictured....I know, they will probably be pink but as you say, still not a bad price.

Pics soon.....

Same here. I bought two packages. Heck I LOVE peonies and for 5 bucks for two (and they were nice bud eyes) I figure I can't go wrong. Thanks for the extra legwork and wouldn't it just be wonderful if they DID look somewhat like the package! (I know I'm not holding my breath).

Please, please, please... somebody post pictures as soon as theirs blooms! We are all chomping at the bit. :-)

Thanks for all that information Perrence, I certainly appreciate it, as I too wonder about this mystery peony. I bought a bag of 2, don't expect them to bloom but when they do, I'll post a picture.

Incredibly, all the wally peonies I bought have buds! Blue lagoon, sorbet and festiva maxima. The 28$ red charm from Wayside that I planted last fall has no buds...go figure!
Will post pictures of blue lagoon as soon as the bud opens...

I seen a box at one walmart about a month ago and it was empty. I've been looking for another one since and no luck finding one. I've searched eight wal-mart's in two states looking.

I have seen a lot of them up for auction on Ebay. So that is probably why you have found so many empty boxes.

I bet it is similar to this peony, which is a lavender pink...

Here is a link that might be useful: Myra Macrae

This variety is described as "blue"

Kamatanishiki  The name means "Kamata Tapestries" and you will wonder if the beautiful flowers are real, or made of wisteria-blue silk! The flower is double, with rich purple-blue shading delicately lighter at the edges.

A picture of Kamatanishiki can be seen at

http://www.dutchbulbs.com/fall/z33380.21994.html

It is a tree peony though. Is the walmart one a tree peony? and this one is Japanese.

I just bought several of these on eBay. Below is a link to one of the photos of Blue Lagoon that is currently for sale on eBay. I don't think they are tree peonies. If you want any, get them quick as the prices on eBay have increased quite a bit over the past month.

I'll post a photo if I get any blooms from the ones I just purchased.

Missi

I just put mine in..and can't wait to see what color they come out.
Thanks for doing the research.

Wow, just checked out eBay, can't believe the prices they are selling for! Especially considering I got 2 bags for a total of 4 for $10... I'm smiling, even if they do come up pink.
Mary Lu

Hi Mary Lu!

I called 36 Walmarts in the Twin Cities area (from St. Cloud to Hutchinson to Mankato) and everybody says they are sold out. I was selling them on my website and nobody was interested. Then one day they all sold out within a couple days. This was also about the same time I did all the calling around, and the same time the eBay Blue Lagoons went from $10 to over $20... ...for a peony that nobody in the U.S. has ever seen bloom!

What we are witnessing is an insane plant fad based on potentially false advertizing and altered photos. How high do you think the prices will get before the craze is over?

Incidentally, every single Blue Lagoon being sold in the U.S. right now is from Walmart who is the only customer for this variety from Garden State Bulb who is the only supplier of Blue Lagoon in the U.S. from what I've been told. And Garden State is sold out and will not confirm that they are going to carry it next year. They will probably have some other similarly mysterious peony on the early racks next year. Remember to keep your eyes open 2006.

Congratulations to everybody who bought theirs at Walmart! You did good!

So again, any guesses as to how high the prices will get? $50? $75? $100?

It's just crazy isn't it? I wonder how many people paying that much are going to plant them and how many are going to try to turn around and sell them again.
I bought them because they were really nice roots for a really cheap price. I'm definitely NOT expecting them to be anything but pink but I'm sure I'll like them anyway.
If I had $100 to spend on a peony I'd grab one of the Itoh hybrids.
MMMM

you know its funny so many garden snobs i use that term in a kindly way, dont mean to be offensive but... i was just at my neighborhood nursery, one of the best, excellent quality, great prices and they say they purchase a great deal from langerveld
so because they purchase a 2 eye peony root from langerveld and repot selling for 20.00 doesnt mean their plant is better then the 5.00 for 2 roots from walmart (langerveld supplier) with from 3-5 eyes. and why do people talk about doctored photos? if this peony was being sold at the local nursery for 150.00 with the same pic on the plastic tag in the pot nobody would say a word about doctoring. reserve judgement til they flower, open minds let in new ideas, nuff said

I didn't get mine planted right away as it was too early for our zone. But kept them in a cool/dark place. They are in the ground now and eyes are peeking through on all 4. Doubt I'll get any blossoms this year.

Please, anyone who does got blooms, let us know what COLOR they are?
Mary Lu

Hi marcysgarden,

Your statements are exactly correct, the vast majority of the trendy little locally owned quality garden centers buy in a ton of wholesale stock from the same or similar wholesale suppliers that everybody else stocks their shelves with, using the same picture tags.

In my opinion ALL of the wholesale nursery tags and catalog photos are 'altered'. If you look closely at some of those nice tight clumps of daylily Olive Bailey Langdon blooms at Walmart it becomes obvious that mother nature typically does not place all of her blooms facing exactly the same direction and all perfectly spaced equi-distant from each other, packed tightly into a nice tidy, small clump of foliage. The blooms were obviously staged for the shoot. Another example of altering is airbrushing. Two years ago (2003) there was a huge stink over the Dutch Gardens catalog photo of Hemerocallis Blueberry Sundae. If you look at the detail of the purple edging where the petals overlap you will see that the (airbrushed) edging does not follow the flow of the overlap. I pointed this out to one of their call center reps and the answer was "They re-assure us that there was no airbrushing of the photos in this catalog." Yet there is no actual daylily photo of Blueberry Sundae online that looks anything like that photo. Another form of altering is color, shade, and tone enhancing. A current favorite is the Startle daylily. The nursery tag is a brilliant hot pink but every actual photo online shows more of a hot burgundy flower.

As for Blue Lagoon photo altering... consider this statement that I received from a gardenweb visitor just today:

"hi i was the who emailed in re to pic of blue lagoon
being a tulip, i got on to the langerveld web site
looking for info on blue lagoon peony couldnt find
anything but... found a pic of a double blue tulip
that was the identical pic on the blue lagoon label,
went back about a month later to the langerveld web
site pic of double blue tulip was gone, in its place
was a burgundy sort of color double tulip. hmmm.... "

Makes me wonder.

Anyway, I will agree on all your points. If I come across as a snob, my apologies. I am engaged in this conversation because I could find absolutely nothing in reference to Blue Lagoon, anywhere. And wasn't the only person. So I researched, and now am sharing so that everybody can benefit from our combined efforts.

Also, if you read back a bit, you will find another poster who claimed that a different peony root they bought from a "high quality" mail order source was actually inferior in quality to the Walmart peonies. The early sales peonies from Walmart were great quality. I bought several for my garden. The question is whether Blue Lagoon is being truthfully represented by Garden State Bulb. We all want to know what it looks like when it blooms.

Was Langeveld printed on the package somewhere? I thought I looked and couldn't find anything. You are the second person to use that name but when I called Walmart's corporate office they looked it up for me and said that Garden State Bulb was the supplier for Blue Lagoon, and Ray Meade Jr at GSB confirmed that Walmart was their customer (and only customer) for Blue Lagoon.

Hope that clarifies where I'm coming from.

Sincerely,
Perry

Well, put me down as another one who bought the Blue Lagoon, I stuck it in a pot, it is growing and now it is out on the front porch (enclosed/unheated) getting ready for the great outdoors. My opinion? Hey, if I don't like it my novice gardening daughter and sister will inherit it! They will never know the difference. And my curiousity will be satsified!

I bought a package of the 'Blue Lagoon' Peony at the end of March and gave one to my Mother. She potted hers up and placed it in front of a patio door. It bloomed last week. The blooms were made up of single narrow petals in a light pinkish lavender color with a dark pinkish purple swathe down the center of the petals. The centers were bright yellow and fuzzy. They weren't what I was expecting and reminded me of a large Clematis blossom. I wish I had thought to take a picture but only happened upon this post today. Although this Peony certainly isn't blue (at least this one wasn't) it is different from any others I have and just the suspense alone was worth $5.00.

Lori

"just the suspense alone was worth $5.00"

Lori LOL! I totally agree. This is entertaining me too. I have buds on some of mine too. Unfortunately I lost track of which ones were Blue Lagoon and which ones were whatever the other one was (raspberry sundae or sorbet I think). I will definitely post a pic when it blooms
: )

Hi jackie o!

Can't wait to see your pic. I am wondering if all the peonies sold as Blue Lagoon will all look the same or if there will be many variations.(I'll keep mine no matter what it looks like, all Peonies are welcome here.)I tried to get the raspberry one also but they were all gone. I will check again just to be sure.
Lori

I wonder which of us will get blooms first Lori. I went out in my winter coat and gloves today!
Sheesh.

Lori-I bought Lavendar Lady last year at Walmart, mine just bloomed & looks exactly as you describe the blue lagoon to be. I bought the blue lagoon too this year. However, only 1 Lavendar has bloomed so far, one has no buds, & the 3rd one has buds that are much deeper than the 1st one, very red/maroon. I'm anxious to see what it looks like.

The moment of truth approaches :)

hey Perrence -
I remember the flap about Blueberry Sundae, and I'm skeptical of that place ever since. The latest one I noticed seems too good to be true is "Spacecoast Starburst."

Small world. I imagine thousands of northern gardeners entertaining themselves in the winter time by reading the same catalogs, and the same things seem to catch our eye.

Seems like there's some magic obsession with unattainable colors in any popular category (usually true blue or true red). I've seen it with peonies, clematis, roses, daylilies and others.

Although I did read that genetic engineers in Japan have actually produced the first-ever true blue rose using pigment genes from a ... petunia?

Ever check out the Garden Watchdog? I've found a lot of great tips there on retailers - and caveats, too.

Oh - about Blue Lagoon - you may remember that I also bought two bags at W-mart in March, potted 'em up and put 'em in the garage. Now they're on the patio, and they have thick stems and flower buds on them. We shall see...

I agree with others here who've said that the mystery and anticipation are very entertaining. Heck - how many ways can you get this much amusement and fascination for 10 bucks these days? :)

J

Hi Jon,

Rest easy, Spacecoast Starburst (from Kinnebrew directly) is accurate. Here's a picture of mine when it bloomed in '04:

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The "too good to be true" part might be that the tissue culturing process might dilute some of the color/size qualities.

And btw, Spacecoast Starburst, both TC and plants directly from Kinnebrew (the Spacecoast people) turned to mush overwinter here in Minneapolis, two years in a row, both in pots under plastic and in the ground under mulch. Definately not a cold hardy (Zone 4) cultivar.

And once again... strange how we are all daydreaming of the same plants!

Back to Blue Lagoon... any bloom pictures out there yet??
We've had one report of a single petalled flower with a center, any others?

How are those blooms coming along?

In another post (Blue Lagoon Peony Blooms!) they talk about a single flower with soft pink petals and a yellow center, but they didn't have a photo.

We need pictures! Some of you southerners must have Blue Lagoon in bloom by now... share your picts please. :-)

Perry

Yes, PLEASE? Mine are growing but does not look like I will get any blooms this season.
Mary Lu

I have a bud on one of the BL's I planted. I think after looking at some of the Chinese sites that blue peonies mean pink with a bluish cast.

Sheila

What a dissapointment after the wild anticipation! My blue lagoon looked nothing like the pictures.... a single row of pink petals with yellow stamens...not even a purplish overcast....wonder what will happen to the sellers on ebay, with bids going up to $50.00....all those refunds...

Mine weren't soft pink but more like magenta. Very like Pink Jade as seen at http://www.paradisegarden.com/shop/searchresults.php?category=Peonies&browse=4:Single&special=Single;
The petals may have been more single & a bit longer. The only blue it had was as the flower faded it look blue/lavendar. It is a very pretty peony though & since I didn't have one I am very pleased with it. A peony collector would be unhappy though, especially if they paid $50 for it. All I had before the Blue Lagoon & Lavendar Lady from Walmart were doubles which had to be staked to keep the flowers off the ground & these don't.

pappu,
I doubt very seriously that most of the resellers will give refunds. Only one seller that has been posting here has stated unequivocally that they would stand behind their offerings. You can bet your sweet bippy that some buyers are going to totally seeing red!

Sheila

Where are the pictures? Please?
Mary Lu

All of my peonies have big buds (some almost golf ball sized) and not one has opened yet. They're just sitting there. The Blue Lagoon has three buds just about to open. I even tried to help it along a little today LOL. Crossing my fingers that maybe tomorrow it'll open.