Fancy Pants

Fancy Pants won the Stanley Johnson Medal in 2016 and, a full decade later, still ranks twenty-second on the Fab 50 for 2025, remarkable staying power for a flower in the small, specialized orchette class. When a class is narrow, one excellent variety can dominate it for years, and Fancy Pants has done exactly that. Introduced in 2012, it remains the orchette to beat. The breeder code is on record but not a name we could confirm, so the hybridizer stays flagged.

Fancy Pants is an orchette in lavender, one of the rarer open forms: rolled, flute-like ray florets with a small contrasting collar of petaloids around the open center. It is delicate and unusual, a show flower in a niche class and a charming oddity in the garden. The open center makes it pollinator-friendly. Standard care, and the small size means little staking. A decade after its introduction it is still on the Fab 50, which tells you how thoroughly it owns its corner of the show table. We could not confirm the hybridizer behind the breeder code.