In fall, 2014, I ordered three 'Sea Shell' herbaceous peony roots from Gilbert H. Wild & Son. These plants are now blooming for the first time (started May 16). They are clearly not 'Sea Shell' because the blooms are red, whereas those of 'Sea Shell' are supposed to be pink.

The company apologized and issued a credit for the cost of the roots, but I would like to identify these plants, if possible.

Can anyone help me identify them?

Clues:
1. They are blooming at the same time as my 'Pink Hawaiian Coral'.
2. Blooms are 5 inches in diameter and have 10 or 11 petals.
3. The only early red single herbaceous peony offered in the same catalog at the time I ordered 'Sea Shell' was 'Scarlet O'Hara'.

Questions:
1. How likely is it to be 'Scarlet O'Hara'?
2. Are there other possibilities?

Photos:









Thank you!

They must have had a huge problem in 2014.
Here are my mistakes from that year. I tag everything.

LG,

Yours looks exactly like mine!

CS, maybe it is Sparkling Star???

Check this website out
http://www.goldcityflowergarde...

I was looking forward to those two peonies blooming, and just got junk. Those peonies look like the rootstock Chinese tree peony growers use for grafting. I have the same small pink single where my a tree peony died.

Thanks, Karen.

The shape of Sparkling Star's flower is the same as mine, but mine is more of a burgundy red than a dark pink.

LG,

Perhaps yours is different from mine. The flowers of mine are 5 inches in diameter and more burgundy red than deep pink. Are your flowers smaller than that?

I have many, many, similar herbaceous peonies. I purchased 10 that were supposed to be 2 each of 5 different varieties, though 3 had no flowers this year.

All were purchased last spring from Van Bourgondien.

VB was sold a few years ago, and I personally don't order from them any more after not receiving what I ordered and paid for. Life is too short to wait a year or more for something to bloom and then it not be what you paid for.

Those nameplates are 3 1/2 inches long, and those flowers may be 4 inches.

K. van Bourgondien once was a broker furnishing plants to Lowe's and Walmart. Known for wrong names on plants. Seems as though they just picked out a popular name and used it on junk or old, surplus plants.

That's where my NOID tree peonies came from. None of them were true to the names, all 5 TPs. But they are still beautiful though.

@csandy It does resemble Scarlet O'Hara from what I can tell. Would guess that is who it is.

Gilbert Wild is just a grab bag in regard to peony orders. All those I ordered were not true to name. I would not accept a credit since I didn't want the same experience. Finally, the rude customer representative gave me a cash refund on the condition that I would never order from Wild's again. Not a difficult condition for me to accept!

You're right that it's a gamble ordering from GW--never know if you'll get the right thing or not. Their roots are healthy though and always grow well, something I can't say for all of the growers I've ordered from. I've certainly gotten some mis-id'ed peonies from them but some of those are my absolute favorite peonies. I'd never rely on them to get it right on a variety that I ABSOLUTELY had to have but they're great for filling in a garden space with peonies, lilies, daylilies and/or dahlias at a really good price.

http://www.theplantexpert.com/...

there are several on this website,

is there a list somewhere of peony's Wild's hybridized? Maybe it is one of their own? I am sure it is something common and cheap probably.

Wild's always got my orders wrong and sent really scrawny plants, I don't order from them anymore, there are better places to buy from now.

There is a list of hybridizers and all of their varieties in the APS database in the Library section http://www.paeo.de/navigation/.... There's also another resource that I came across that might be helpful, has bloom dates of a lot of varieties. http://peonybloomdate.com/inde...

How is Fina Gardens for reliable identification of peony cultivars?

Before the GBW mis-identification problem surfaced, I had placed an order with Fina Gardens for Scarlet O'Hara, Miss America and First Arrival (an intersectional) for fall delivery.

Fina is reliable and stands behind their peonies sold. Like most true growers, they will replace if not true to name due to mix up.

Alex,

It seems I've got one of those too.
Here is one my rescued NOIDs. It blooms for the first time in my garden. It is very similar to yours. The buds started as light red, opened as deep, warm pink, almost red. The color is deeper than in the picture. After several days the flowers became pink, several very nice hues of pink. The picture was taken very first day. By now, the flowers are lighter and clearly pink.

I love these single flowers. The fragrance is delicate. It does look like Sparkling Star.