The flowers of Magnificent Maroon are extraordinarily large, stemming from their exaggerated standard petals. You will often get five flowers on a long, straight stem which adds to their impact. Unsurprisingly the colour is a magnificent maroon - deep and shimmering but not too dark - with a tiny blue eye at the back of the standard petal. The petals appear more like an open fan than anything too frivolous and frilly. A new, and healthy variety and one of the darkest of our range of autumn sown sweet peas
Magnificent Maroon sweet peas are ideal because of its abundance of flowers which means that even as one of the flowers begins to fade, there are still more looking good. Their enormous size and long stems make them ideal for cutting. It is best grown in a slightly more sheltered spot so tuck it into the corner of the garden. If you prefer an even darker sweet pea, have a look at the old-fashioned Black Knight which is a super deep crimson black colour or the navy Lord Nelson. Otherwise, Magnificent Maroon marries well with all of those wonderful other Spencer sweet peas like Anniversary which has similarly long stems and is white and pale pink. Not for you?
Magnificent Maroon was bred in Northern Ireland by Sydney Harrod in 2016. He was aiming for a larger maroon flower than the existing Burnished Bronze but did not want something so dark as Windsor. So he took characteristics from three sweet peas to create this magical maroon flower.....and thus one learns of the patience and attention to detail that goes into creating new and ever better sweet peas.