We love Polygonum 'Spectabile' but always wanted red flowers with the speckled foliage. Finally, the near-sterile Polygonum 'Spectabile' gave us a few seedlings and one met our expectations. Polygonum 'Freckles' is a 2004 PDN introduction we have trialed since 1993. Polygonum 'Freckles' makes a clump of 6' tall, arching, bamboo-looking stems which are clothed with heavily white-speckled leaves (much brighter than Polygonum 'Spectabile'). When grown in full sun, the leaves take on a reddish cast. In September, the clumps are topped with terminal and auxiliary flower stalks of short red spikes...very attractive and no seedlings or running in more than 10 years. Please don't let the intellectually-challenged eco-nazis and uninformed lawmakers convince you that because some clones of a species are bad, the entire species is bad...think Homo sapiens.
