Talks About Hardy Perennials 
II. THE GIANT KNOT-WEED 
By W. C. EGAN 
T HIS bold and striking plant , Polygonum Sie- 
boldt, the best of the genus when grown 
as an isolated specimen on the lawn, is 
a native of Japan, introduced to European 
cultivation in 1825, and, like most of the spe¬ 
cies, spreads rapidly at the roots, especially if 
disturbed. 
Growing it in a group with other plants is 
almost out of the question, as it would soon preempt 
all the bed, and an attempt to eradicate it seems 
futile, as each little point of a broken root will make 
a plant even if buried deeply. It is so imposing in 
its bold and graceful habit, that it is worth some 
trouble and expense to grow it. The plant illustrated 
is some four years old, planted in a square, bottomless 
box made out of two-inch plank, two and a half feet 
wide at the top and one foot wider at the bottom, 
and three feet deep. This is sunk into the earth 
so that the top rim is about two inches lower than the 
sod. 
So tar no roots have escaped confinement. 
Cement or brick would be more lasting, and would 
have been used had not the wooden box been on 
hand at time of planting. This plant is also known 
as Polygonum cuspidatum. 
A somewhat similar species, growing perhaps 
a little taller and differing mainly in its angular and 
striated stems, is P. Sachalinense, a native of the 
Island of Sachalin, north of Japan. It is hardy 
beyond question, as is also P. Sieboldi, and while 
unusually persistent when once established, may 
THE GIANT KNOT-WEED 
SPRAY OF THE GIANT KNOT-WEED 
be used to advantage in rough places where a strong 
growing plant is desired. 
P. Baldschuanicum, from Turkey, of questionable 
hardiness, and first described in 1884, may be classed 
as a shrubby climber, growing, it is said, twenty 
feet tall. It should prove a valuable acquisition in 
a more favorable climate than that proportioned to 
the suburbs of Chicago. It is a perennial whose 
stems become woody at the base. The small white 
or rose colored flowers on terminal, drooping panicles, 
are extremely numerous and very effective when in 
their prime. 
There is another climber, more slender than the 
above, in Thunberg’s P. multiflorum, a tuberous 
rooted species climbing some eighteen feet, and 
blooming in September. The flowers are a fleecy 
white on small laterals, along the upper three or 
more feet of the vine. This species is somewhat 
tender and only successful with me when wintered 
in a cold frame. The sprays of P. multiflorum are 
suitable for decorative purposes. 
P. com pactum is a low growing species, somewhat 
like P. Sieboldi except in height, but lacks its state¬ 
liness and is a much inferior plant. 
The above comprises about all of the one hundred 
and fifty known species worth growing. Once in a 
while we run across a collection of “old-fashioned 
flowers” and in it is found P. Onentale, an East 
Indian annual, in cultivation since 1707, known 
as “Princess feather,” “Tear thumb,” and “ Kiss- 
me-over-the-garden-gate. ” The latter curious name 
was probably given it because it grew up and over 
the garden fence, it generally being grown as a back 
plant lining a fence. The genus is very closely 
related to the buckwheat and is often classed as 
belonging to that family. 
