All blue orchids in big box stores near me are dyed blue and it is likely that a blue phal at a walmart is dyed. Follow up question, kind of related; isn't the only orchid capable of being true blue a vanda? Or is there no orchid capable of being blue? Anyway, IMO the orchid is most likely dyed blue. 25 bucks is not so great a deal for a typical phal. I would wait until most (if not all) the blooms are spent and purchase it from discount shelf. Walmart near here was selling phals for 5 bucks a piece, problem was you didn't know what the flowers looked like for most. A few still had a flower. I still need to get me a phal for my collection....

Here is a true blue orchid. Very difficult if not impossible to cultivate.
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Thelymitra ixioides
Most of blue orchids you see are purplish blue.

Are there any blue ones that might work for beginners?

The blue Phals are a marketing ploy, as are the Phals dyed other colors. Companies use white Phals, and the flowers on all future spikes will be white.

From the link below: .... Florida-based Silver Vase Nursery presented its Blue Mystique at the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in January. In May 2011, Dutch Geest Orchideen received the Flora Holland Award 2011 in the Concepts Category, for their Royal Blue phalaenopsis and its shade of blue which the jury considered to be delightful.

During the growth process, the stalk of a white phalaenopsis orchid is injected with a blue dye solution. The intervention is performed in an environment that keeps the infection risk for the plant at a minimum. The blue color is absorbed by the orchid and creates a blue flower.

Subsequent flowerings will result in white blooms. The dye is not available to the public, nor are the exact steps of the procedure. Do-it-yourself dyeing is not encouraged, and at every home gardenerâÂÂs own risk.

What has been upsetting Blue Mystique and Royal Blue Phal customers is that they believed to be buying a real blue orchid. In response to controversy that has been picked up by the media, growers now use product labels to inform buyers that a white orchid has been treated in order to produce those magnificent blue flowers, and that future blooms will be white.

This simple gesture allows prospective customers to make informed blue orchid decisions. This is especially meaningful when evaluating the price of white versus blue phalaenopsis. While some may love the electric blue color just as much, others will plan to sell the orchid on Ebay once it returns to its true white nature. Others still might consider purchasing a real blue orchid from a specialty grower or decide on a bouquet of blue dendrobium instead. [end of article]

Here is a link that might be useful: THE MYSTIQUE OF THE BLUE PHAL

Here is a pic. of Vanda coerulea.
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Pretty true to colour and it introduces some coolness tolerance into Vanda hybrids such as this one.
Vanda Gordon Dillon 'Blue'
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BUT I have no idea how practical it is to grow Vandas under lights or in zone 6 so i cannot say if these are beginner's orchids.
You have to be wary of nursery catalogues. The guys who write the screed are always optimists. "Blue" in a lot of cases is almost blue.

Love the second one, Arthur. What a pretty color.

Beautiful vandas. Another reason to hate my climate, i am deprived of gorgeous flowers like those. I still get to enjoy other orchids though....Someday i will have a room dedicated to tropical plants, maybe then i can grow some of the more difficult orchids :/

I miss Vandas....
They grow like weeds in SoFla on practically nothing...

Leafhead 4b (My Page),

I have always loved blue Vandas. But it is very difficult to grow in higher latitude. The sun is not powerful enough.

Those are gorgeous, Arthur. And thank you all for the info.
I don't think I'm quite ambitious enough to try anything but a phal at this point. I love looking at all of them, but I'm kind of waiting to see what kind of success I have with the one I inherited. At least, I keep telling myself I need to wait....

This morning, I went to Home Depot to get some pansies, and while I was there I noticed some rather bedraggled looking orchids over in a corner of the "indoor plant" section. They were sitting there, just in their clear plastic pots, having been stripped of the decorative one that apparently made them worth $25, with a sign that said $6.99. There was one I almost bought, and I'm glad I didn't now. It was a wonderful blue, not in full bloom, but just starting to fade. I actually told myself to ask here before I paid for it, LOL!