'Fragrant Angel'
White Coneflower
"These flowers are coming up wild
They're coming up, they're coming up
They're coming up wild."
-Martha Wainwright,
b.1977
b.1977
Introduced by Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nursery in Tigard, Oregon, Echinacea purpurea alba 'Fragrant Angel' could possibly displace 'White Swan' as the standard white echinacea, as 'White Swan' though very hardy is not as ultra-hardy as regular purple echinacea, & it lacks a noticeable fragrance.
Terra Nova says 'Fragrant Angel' blooms should reach four or five inches across which would be bigger than 'White Swan,' but in our garden the long-established 'White Swan' has much the bigger flower. Its first year for us, 'Fragrant Angel' has struggled a bit getting established (they can be sensitive to summer heat until their root system is well established), & the flowers were barely three inches wide, though frillier looking than for 'White Swan.'
The August photo above shows the heat-stressed & tip-burned blooms of 'Fragrant Angel.' Even with sufficient watering it needed more protection from August heat than the other echinaceas demand. This may be only its first-year response, & it should reach a higher level of heat-hardiness by its second summer. It bloomed continuously from July to October; it'd likely be done in September in colder zones.
Also in our garden, the 'White Swan' clump is quite a bit shorter than 'Fragrant Angel,' perhaps only because 'Fragrant Angel' is possibly more vigorous, but maybe because 'White Swan' is closer to being a dwarf for a small garden.
If there's to be a cultivation battle for which of these white echinaceas will be the future standard, in 'Fragrant Angel's' corner is the fact that it does have a mild honey-phlox perfume which older cultivars don't possess. Getting scent into coneflowers has been one of the new breeding priorities. It is still not such a wondrous perfume as to make a major difference, but it's nice.
The other feature for 'Fragrant Angel' is that its petals are close together in two rows, not double by any means, but overlapping for a full-bodied frilly look. To me this means that 'White Swan' with its individuated petals & 'Fragrant Angel' with its overlapping petals are sufficiently distinct that neither need be displaced from the marketplace; gardeners who love echinaceas should want them both.
Most of the old standard coneflowers have shuttlecock flowers strongly reflexed. They look wilted to the unfamiliar eye but are preferred by coneflower lovers. 'Fragrant Angel' keeps its petals straight out & perky, more like daisies than shuttlecocks. This look might really improve sales because I remember when I was a novice gardener, I was slow to warm to echinaceas because of the wilted-daisy impression. I now take their badminton-birdie appearance so for granted that varieties that are not reflexed are what takes the getting used to.
Although echinaceas are winter-dieback perennials, in our mild zone they don't always go entirely dormant, & can be producing half-finished flowers deep into autumn. If this is discouraged by clipping off any attempted late-autumn blooms, the clump will instead expend that energy spreading its root system more quickly.
When the petals are spent, the large yellow-orange cone turns black & remains rather decorative in its own right, attracting finches that cling to the stems & peck at seeds in the cones. The cones can be left through winter or removed at any time when they are no longer attractive, but certainly cut back before spring's new growth.