Irises and Ornamental Grasses Great British Garden Revival

There's no doubt that Britain is a nation of very proud gardeners.

Our love of flowers and plants goes back centuries.

But there's a problem. Not everything is rosy in our gardens.

Our iconic plants are under attack from foreign invaders.

Ancient woodlands are at risk of being lost forever.

And our favourite flowers are disappearing right before our eyes.

So we need you to help us in our revival campaign.

We'll be inspiring you to dig deep and celebrate the best of British.

As we reveal the country's most stunning gardens.

And sharing our top gardening tips.

It's time to rediscover our passion for plants.

And bring new life into our gardens.

There's one flower that can give you almost every colour under the sun.

It takes its name from the Greek for rainbow

and with over 300 varieties and thousands of cultivars,

it's one of the most diverse garden plants we have.

It's one of my absolute favourites

but it's not getting the attention it deserves.

British gardeners were once the pioneers of cultivating

the glorious iris but today collections are diminishing

and the range of irises available is in decline.

If we only grow the same familiar varieties and don't seek out

those which are a little bit more unusual we risk losing them forever.

On my revival, I'll uncover one woman's mission to save

a unique collection of heritage irises.

It's this one. It's just beginning to open.

I'll be getting creative with some floral art.

I'm feeling slightly terrified.

Very out of my depth!

And showing you how to choose the right iris for your garden.

And they're quite variable in flower

but they often have these rather large flattened flowers.

In fact, that's about the largest iris flower I've seen.

The sheer variety of types and colours of iris are what's

really captured my imagination about these wonderful plants

and I've come here to Marwood Hill Gardens just outside Barnstaple

in North Devon where they have a national collection of Japanese iris

including this beautiful ensata called moonlight waves.

The Japanese iris or iris ensata is renowned for its stunning

purple colours and its delicate elegant appearance.

Irises are so exquisite, it's really worth taking the time to

look at how that flower is composed.

Every single part, it comes in threes.

So you've got the falls here which are these large rounded petals -

in fact, they're sepals -

and then here in the middle, we've got the standards.

Now in a bearded iris, these tend to stick upright

but here they're quite small and lay flatter.

And then you've got these style arms, again in threes.

It really is a thing of great beauty.

Irises are basically split into two groups -

the bearded and the beardless.

An iris beard comes in the form of tufts of fine hairs

that can be found on the lower petal of the flower

and bearded irises are the more common plant that we're used

to seeing in beds and borders in the UK.

I became familiar with irises really from a very young age

because my father used to grow those little reticulata irises

in our rock garden and then as I got older, I discovered the whole full

range of irises, and for me,

they have that really sort of languid quality -

The way the flower's shaped, that real elegance,

the beauty of the foliage

and I now cannot imagine having a garden without irises.

I think we should all be growing many more of the rare

and interesting varieties

because if we don't, they could be lost from our gardens completely.

To get my revival campaign under way, I'm heading to Gloucestershire

to visit a lady whose passion for irises is renowned.

It's lovely to meet you, too

and I've been so excited to come and see your irises.

I can't tell you.

Anne Milner owns the National Collection of Bliss Irises,

all of which are varieties of bearded iris that were

cultivated by early 20th century iris enthusiast Arthur Bliss.

What was it about irises particularly that grabbed you initially?

Well, I didn't know anything about irises at all

and I was doing some family history research with my cousin, who offered

me a couple of her irises that she said came from Uncle Arthur.

I had no idea who Uncle Arthur was and we did some research on both

him and his irises and gradually built the collection from there.

And it turns out to have been Arthur Bliss, doesn't it -

who is incredibly important in terms of...

Yes. In the development of irises in the 1920s.

Arthur Bliss became famous for breeding around 170 different

varieties of bearded iris and Anne has some family artefacts

that she's inherited from her great uncle.

So this is a very handsome group. Who have we got here?

Well, this is Arthur with a couple of his brothers

and sister with his mother.

He was the eldest son.

Now who's this gorgeous baby in a wonderful bonnet?

This is his niece, Phyllis.

And when she was about ten, used to help him in the garden.

Wonderful. And in fact this letter says "My dear Phyllis".

And this is a letter to her as an adult.

He was giving her a book on genetics.

He was explaining that he uses genetics to breed his irises,

which is something that other people weren't really doing at that time.

Recognition for Arthur's work all began when the owner of a large

nursery took an interest in one particular Bliss iris.

He saw an iris that Arthur hadn't particularly

thought of as very special, which was called Dominion, which has

very rich velvety falls and is a very special iris because of that.

It is a very beautifully shaped iris and is a very good breeder.

So have you got any Dominion in the garden?

I do have Dominion but the rain last night destroyed the two flowers which were left

but there is one bud which I'm hoping will come out sometime today.

-Only needs one bud! Let's go and see.

-Absolutely.

Anne has made it her mission to recover as many Bliss irises as

she can find and they're all cared for in her gorgeous garden borders.

So where is this elusive Dominion?

This one's Dominion and look - it's just beginning to come out.

You can see the richness of the velvety falls.

It's really sort of inky black, isn't it? It's a beautiful colour.

It's so intense.

Well, you can see why that was so eye-catching at the time.

Now how many irises did Bliss develop?

-About 170.

-And you've got how many here?

And I've got about 40 here. 35-40, something like that.

-And you've been collecting for how long?

-20 years.

-Whoo!

So that's about one and a half, two a year.

So it's quite slow, isn't it?

Very slow. Actually finding one that has been in a garden

since that time with its name attached is very, very hard.

So Anne certainly has her work cut out but she still seems

incredibly committed to preserving Great Uncle Arthur's irises.

With so many new varieties on offer, why is it important, do you think,

we keep growing these old irises?

I think it's because a lot of people still like the traditional shapes.

They grow very well in traditional gardens.

They stand up well to disease, on the whole.

Is there anything that you don't yet have that would really,

that you'd really love to acquire?

The one that I would really love to have would be Phyllis Bliss

because that was named for his little niece.

And she always asked him to name an iris after her.

So that one would be the icing on the cake?

Yes, it would be. It would absolutely be the icing on the cake.

Bearded irises may be the most common garden irises

but here at Marwood Hill Gardens, it's the beardless Japanese

irises that are blooming today.

There are so many fabulous irises that you can plant at home,

so here's a few of my favourites.

The Japanese have been breeding iris ensata for many centuries.

It's called the Japanese iris, although it's also

found in China and Siberia and they're quite variable in flower

but they often have these rather large flattened flowers.

In fact, that's about the largest iris flower I've seen.

And it's got these drooping standards

so you get this very soft effect.

Although you also can find them looking like this which is

obviously much closer to the original species and again,

it's got these beautifully drooping falls

and then the standards are tiny.

They just stick up here like little ears.

And you can see that bright golden yellow signal just directing

pollinating insects just right up to the nectar there.

So they like to have their feet nice and damp in consistently damp

soil that's nice and rich as well, but not in the water itself.

Not in still water.

The most important thing to remember is that it has to be acidic soil

if you really want them to thrive.

If you're new to irises,

then I recommend you start with an iris sibirica.

They're absolutely beautiful to start with.

They make incredibly good garden plants and they're just not fussy.

So although they like quite moist soil, they'll also grow

just in a normal border.

I mean, I grow mine on London clay. They're perfectly happy.

And they also just give so much. You have these lovely flowers.

Almost like butterflies. They just flutter on the top.

Now this one - which is not actually that typical of iris sibirica -

has these wonderful sort of wavy edges to the falls

and that beautiful signal there in the middle of the flower.

And these flowers appear any time from sort of end of May right

through to the middle of June and then of course when it

finishes flowering and you often get maybe ten of them on this sort of

branching stems, then you've got the foliage and it makes this big clump

of very elegant slender leaves which are beautiful in their own right.

Iris pseudacorus is one of our two native irises in the UK.

It's called the yellow flag iris and it has these beautiful -

quite small but really, they make an impact -

these strong yellow flowers.

In fact, it flowers a little bit earlier than the ensatas

that are elsewhere in this part of the garden

and you can see this one's just beginning to go over.

Now this is one that likes really damp soil.

In fact, it will even grow in shallow water at the edge of a large

pond or perhaps down by a stream.

I think it's a magnificent iris but it's not one for the faint-hearted.

When I was retraining in horticulture,

my tutor was very keen on me drawing the flowers

because he said it's the way that you really look at them and get to know them.

And I want everyone to fall in love with irises,

to appreciate their exquisite beauty,

so what better way than setting up an iris art school?

'This class is run by botanical artists Christine Grey-Wilson

'and Isobel Bartholomew here at the beautiful Redgrave

'and Lopham Nature Reserve in Diss. Irises were the inspiration for impressionists such artists as

'Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh

'and today it's my turn with some expert tutorage, of course.'

You've got your three curved fall petals here.

There's a little anther in there too.

Now, in this one, these standards here are absolutely huge.

The fall here has lovely colours.

And it's got a sort of thick-piled carpet.

I'm feeling slightly terrified. Very out of my depth.

Just plot it out so it's kind of that much by that much.

Plonk it on there and see how you fit it on.

Go from sort of there down so you sort of start there.

OK, back to the drawing board. Basically.

'Well, if at first you don't succeed...'

You think you know what it looks like and so you just think,

"Well, there's a fall here and one here," but actually you really

do have to keep looking at it so you don't miss anything.

'This is turning out to be pretty tough.

'I wonder how my classmates are faring with their flowers.'

Have you done this before loads of times?

-Never.

-Oh, please tell me you have! You'll make me feel much better.

Do you grow them?

I do, yes.

And did you know that they flower,

that different varieties flower throughout the year,

so you can be enjoying something similar to that all year round?

That would be good because most of mine

seem to flower at a similar time so they're there

and then they're gone and you're left with the leaves.

The iris is wonderful.

Yes.

Because it's almost like a ballet dancer, you know, it's got poise

and elegance and, you know, it's got a lot about it.

-Are you actually enjoying it?

-I am, it's very therapeutic, actually.

Well, there you are. That's the main thing.

'Well, back to task.

'It's time for me to add some colour.'

It's a lot more difficult than I thought.

But, you know, it's sort of coming, and actually the veining helps to really

bring those falls to life.

'I think that I'm just about finished though it's far from being a Monet.'

You've done beautifully.

-You've got lovely graded washes, which are not always easy.

-I have?

You should be proud of it.

-Well, it's a start.

-Yes.

-It's a good start.

-Yes.

'I'm keen to see Christine's work to know how an expert paints an iris.'

What do you feel about irises, particularly?

I mean, obviously you must draw all sorts of flowers

but what do you feel?

I'm very, very fond of irises.

They have tremendous movement

and this extraordinary sort of dancing quality to them.

And the fact that they're not out for very long.

I tend to agree with you.

It makes them something extra special to look forward to.

Yes, definitely, yes.

For me, I don't think anything quite beats the beauty of that

flower in your garden, but I have to say doing this has made me

really look at it and enjoy it on a completely different level.

With some irises flowering only for a short time, the answer is to

plant them in combination with other things so you extend that season

of interest, and here at Marwood Hill Gardens they combine their beautiful

Japanese irises with perennials like these lovely astilbes.

And if you'd like to have your own Japanese iris

display in your garden I've got some must-have planting tips

that will create the most wonderful summer display.

I've found a great spot here to plant up some of these

beautiful Japanese iris.

Just down here by the stream, and this soil has already been

prepped because Iris ensata likes really nice rich soil.

It's quite a greedy feeder.

So it's got plenty of well-rotted manure in there

and you can also continue to feed them.

You can mulch, as well, to make sure they get all the nutrients

they need.

Now, there's already a beautiful back drop of these rodgersias,

these great, big leaves and plumes of flowers, which I think

is stunning and I want to pick up on that with some astilbe.

There's one in here already and I'm going to add another couple to that.

There's one, and another one here,

and again those plume-like flowers will really be a good contrast

to the leaves of the iris,

which have that really strong vertical accent.

And the trick when you're combining plants like this is to make

sure that they all like similar conditions.

So these astilbes go in.

That one there.

Let's settle it in.

So we're now going to have a really nice clump of that here.

So now I'm going to see where I'm going to position the iris to

look good with that.

I've got three in here. This one, lovely one here - Moonlight Wave.

Beautiful. That sort of lovely fresh colouring. And we've got this one.

Crested Surf, and we'll see if I've got room for one more.

Rolling Seas. There's a definite nautical theme developing here.

We're just a couple of miles from the sea so that's very appropriate.

So I think I'm going to put that white back there with

the rodgersias behind, and we'll have maybe this lovely

sort of powder blue there, and then I'm going to put the other one,

a sort of softer colour, I think just in the front here.

And then always step back and have a look before you do anything

too much and go too far.

Yep, happy with that.

'Once you've decided where they're going to go, aim to plant the irises

'to a similar depth to what they were in their pots

'and then firm the soil around the root ball as you go.'

I like that but I think I'm also going to dock through some primulas.

Those gorgeous candelabra primulas over here. There we are.

Absolutely stunning.

I love the way that you get these

sort of whirls of flowers going up the stem.

There we go, and that will sort of perk up as it settles in.

'When combining plants together you can be creative with

'the use of form and colour.

'It's really up to you.'

And it's very important to water even in this damp soil

because you're just settling that soil around the roots.

Making sure there are no gaps in there.

Yeah. Done.

'And when those irises begin to bulk up this bed will look spectacular.'

Next on my revival I'm on my way to Gloucestershire to discover

how many varieties are readily available to you and me.

'Simon Burbage is the manager here at Lechlade Gardening Centre.'

Simon.

-Hello.

-Yes, just the man I'm looking for.

-How are you?

Very well indeed, thank you. I've come to look at the irises.

-Right.

-You've actually got a really good variety of irises here.

You've got foetidissima. You've got something variegated. Braithwaite.

That's actually one of my absolute favourites but I often go to

a garden centre and there are three, maybe four different varieties. Now, why is that?

The reason why, to be perfectly honest, is supply and demand.

Erm, we're obviously a garden centre

with thousands of different types of plants.

We can't obviously sell every single variety

so we tend to pick a dozen of the best.

Get them in when they're flowering.

So they need to be in flower to sell.

That's very interesting. So you're talking about having a sales

period for an iris of about three or four weeks.

-At the most.

-And do you have customers that come in

and say, "I'd like this variety and this variety and this variety?"

We absolutely do, yeah, we do.

Unfortunately it's very difficult for us to get hold of them

because again we have to cater for the masses,

so specific customer orders are a bit tricky.

So where does the modern gardener go

if they want to find more unusual irises?

Well, to the internet, of course, which has spawned

quite a cottage industry.

'Clare Kneen is an iris enthusiast who's managed to turn her

'horticultural hobby into a thriving online business that offers

'some of the rarer more elusive varieties of iris.'

Well, I've always liked irises.

They were in the garden when I grew up and then

when I had my own house I've had irises in the garden ever

since and I just got more and more and more.

-It's easy, isn't it?

-Very easy.

-They draw you in, don't they?

How was it that you then sort of progressed from there,

from just being a lover of irises to

sort of properly collecting them and then selling them?

Well, as you know, bearded irises you need to dig them

and split them to get them to flower well and I ended up with

so many I had to find somewhere else for the irises,

and then I used to sell them for charity, and then

I decided that I had so many I could make some money for myself.

So what do you think of my revival,

this campaign to not only to get people to grow more irises

but just for them to be more available?

I think everyone should be growing irises in their garden

and you can have an iris in flower all the way through the year

if you pick a selection of different irises.

'Clare grows the bulk of her irises in a field close to her own

'garden, and because the majority have now finished flowering,

'there's plenty of work to be done.'

Anything that's being sold needs to be dug up and sent out, and

anything else that I want to move needs to be moved at the same time.

That's got plenty of shoots on it.

That's got shoots, so although this rhizome is old, that's going to give me more new plants.

So do you know how many different irises you've got now?

The last time I counted I got to 200 and stopped.

How many years has it taken you to get that collection together?

Oh, I've been growing them for 15 years.

Plans for lots more?

Plans for more, yes. I keep seeing new ones that I love.

It's great to know that there are people like Clare out there

who share my love for irises and are ensuring that the whole

range are thriving and available to all of us.

There are more than 150 different irises

here at Marwood Hill Gardens and it's wonderful to be able to

compare and contrast them, which really makes you hungry for more.

And if you're going to join my iris revival

and grow them at home, one of the key plant care tips to ensure you

get the best from many irises is division.

Now, ideally you would divide bearded irises

every three-to-five years,

and it's important because if you don't they just become these

really congested clumps and they don't flower terribly well.

You get the sort of flower round the edge

but in the middle there's not very much happening.

I don't want to damage the rhizomes

and I don't want to damage too much of the root.

But I think that will sort of start to come away now.

Now, I'm just going to shake off as much of the soil as I can.

I'm just looking to find the sort of bits of rhizome that are still

productive that I want to keep.

You've got all the old rhizomes here in the middle and then

the newer ones are always down like sort of satellites at the end.

So you just simply now divide them.

Now, you can do it in various ways.

You can use a sharp knife. You can use secateurs.

You can also sometimes just snap the pieces off.

So I'm going to look here.

This is where the root is on this bit. In fact it's starting to fall apart.

Now I'm just going to cut a bit more of that off. I don't think we need all that.

And just tidy this bit up here and do the same with all these sections.

So I'm only looking for the bits here that have some root on them.

There we are.

So we've now got several pieces and this, you discard.

You can compost it, and then I'm also going to cut down the leaves because

when we replant it you don't want them to be rocking about on the soil

because you don't plant these deeply. The wind can catch these and

you get wind rock so I'm just going to cut them down to about six inches

or so and traditionally that's done in a sort of mitre shape.

Some people like to trim the roots a little bit just to tidy them up.

I don't always bother

but that's exactly what you're looking for to replant.

Right now, the best thing is if you can go ahead,

I'll just take those bits off, and replant these straight away.

And I've got the perfect spot for these beauties.

A rhizome is effectively a modified stem and it's a storage organ

for all the nutrients that's needed to produce the new flowers.

So place the rhizome there.

So just try and get the heights right so it's going to just

sit proud of the soil and just put those roots down around it.

These need a really good baking by the sun in order to flower well.

So again I just scoop out a little bit higher in the middle

so it sits proud and that rhizome goes on there.

Again just lift it up a bit. Cover the roots.

Firm it in but make sure the soil doesn't cover

the top of the rhizome.

Right, four down, a few more to go.

When it comes to ensata irises there's one man in Hampshire

who's gone to great lengths to bring a little bit of East Asia

to his own garden.

I'm besotted by Japan and their gardening tradition

and I like very, very much these ensata irises.

These rather fine blooms that come up rather

mysteriously in a range of different colours

and last a very short period of time.

Really, maybe three days each flower. It's very ephemeral somehow.

Rupert Nabarro first visited Japan over 20 years ago and has since

striven to grow ensata irises along the river banks here at Bere Mill.

Rupert's garden is also home to many other iris varieties that

flower at different stages throughout the season,

creating interest all summer long.

I particularly like these beardless Japanese ones

but that's not the end of the story.

There's an enormous variety which cover a wide

range of times of year, different sizes and colours

and I would just encourage people to go for it themselves.

It's incredibly rewarding.

For me, nothing else quite has the magic that an iris

brings to a garden.

The range of different types, and I feel that we really don't

want to lose any of those for future generations.

So if you've been inspired,

and you've never grown irises before, I suggest that this year you

seek out perhaps some of the more unusual ones and plant them,

and I guarantee it will be the start of a lifelong passion.

Across the series our revival team are travelling the length

and breadth of Britain celebrating our gardens,

flowers and plants in all their glory with one important mission -

to champion our rich gardening heritage.

Next, Toby Buckland wants to get us all growing grasses.

When most of us think about grass in our gardens we think

about pushing a mower or pulling unwanted weeds out from the borders.

We rarely think of grasses as a way of giving colour

and structure to our gardens but we should, and we can.

'Once popularised by the Victorians, grasses soon fell by the wayside

'but it's time to get us all growing them again.'

Ornamental grasses will give your garden a wow factor and with

none of the watering or maintenance the less robust plants demand.

And contrary to popular belief, the grass on the other side

doesn't have to be greener.

On my revival campaign, the botanical names of grasses prove

a bit of a mouthful.

Helictotrichon sempervirens. Yeah, saphirsprudel.

'So I lead the public in a rebranding exercise.' Yeah, yeah.

Toby's tufted, I think we'll put a line through.

SHE LAUGHS

'And I'll give you my top tips on how to create dramatic displays

'using grasses.'

Do you know what? I think that's looking pretty good.

I've come to Scampston Hall near Malton in North Yorkshire to

start my revival because it's gorgeous and demonstrates perfectly

what can be achieved with ornamental grasses in a contemporary garden.

Grasses make up some 20% of the garden design

and in these borders they work really hard.

Not only providing elegance and line but also colour and texture.

When I was a trainee gardener it was shrubs, shrubs, shrubs

and more shrubs.

All function and no fun, so when I heard about ornamental

grasses it was like a breath of fresh air.

I just couldn't get enough of them.

I scoured nurseries for new plants, visited botanic gardens to try

and get a handle on their unfamiliar names.

Now when I'm setting out a garden, I mean, I wouldn't,

I couldn't, be without ornamental grasses.

They are the most beautiful and versatile of plants

and I want everyone to celebrate them in their gardens.

Not many grasses have managed to make a name for themselves

part from perhaps bamboo and the once revered pampas grass.

The pampas grass was a 1970s sensation.

This was a grass that had everything.

It was shrubby and evergreen, low-maintenance,

and compared to the ubiquitous privet, groovy.

If you had a pampas in your garden you'd made it

but this wasn't the first time these plants had been a fashion statement.

A century earlier, the Victorians were particularly taken with the big showy varieties.

I think it's time grasses came back into fashion again.

I'm really excited to be visiting Kew Gardens, where they

share my passion for grasses and house a historic collection.

Records of those grasses can be found here at the herbarium.

'I've asked taxonomist Maria Voronstova to show me

'some of the celebrities of the grass world.'

This is really amazing. Have a look at this.

This is a Darwin specimen.

My God. "C Darwin, 1833."

He wrote this. This is actually his handwriting. South America.

HMS Beagle.

It's the first time this species was collected and discovered

and described.

Agrostis magellanica.

So how does it work? So, taxonomic record-keeping,

what is it about?

So people go out there and they collect plants.

Then taxonomists study those plants,

create a classification system,

and that creates the basic record of Earth's diversity.

This knowledge is then used by scientists, horticulturalists,

conservationists.

We're still discovering new species today.

Any new modern ones you can show me?

SHE LAUGHS

So here's an amazing little grass from Madagascar.

OK.

It's called Andropogon itremoensis and I'm proud to say that

I've named it.

I pressed it to make the herbarium specimen.

This is the notes I made in the field.

In the beginning I didn't realise there was anything special about

it, and after a few weeks of research I realised that this species didn't

have a scientific name and it would actually be really amazing if it

was ever brought into horticulture and grown in a botanic garden.

People don't understand grasses.

They think they're all homogenous but they are quite different.

Yours is very delicate.

Charles, he obviously had an eye for the fluffy and...

THEY LAUGH

And the ornamental.

But anything that is recognisable as a garden grass?

We have everything in the collection pretty much,

so everybody knows pampas.

Oh, there's no mistaking that. Look at that.

Cortaderia selloana is the Latin name.

These are the earliest collections from Brazil.

So, this one was given to Kew in 1894 and collected a lot earlier

than that and this set, basically the first-ever scientific

record of this plant and where it grew.

I think if people knew more about diversity they would break away from

the usual things that everyone has in their gardens and go for...this!

'As well as the dried specimens there is also a wonderful living

'collection looked after by botanical horticulturalist Michelle Cleave.

'The Victorians loved them

'and there's been a grass garden here since the 19th century, so I want

'to get to the bottom of why they're no longer popular in our gardens.'

The Victorians loved naturalistic gardening, didn't they?

Was that an antithesis of the industrialisation of the Victorian world?

Yes, it certainly was, I think.

They really did champion gardening in a different way. Using natives.

Using plants from different places like North America and Europe,

and much more free-flowing movement.

Why do you think grasses fell out of fashion in the post-Victorian era?

I think maybe the ones that they used perhaps were a little bit

thuggish and as fashion being what it is, other things came into play.

'The collection is incredible, with grasses popular with

'the Victorians planted alongside more modern varieties.

'Some 550 in total.' This is a Victorian favourite?

Yes, it is. And it's Phalaris arundinacea.

Gardener's Garters.

Why is it called that?

I guess maybe linking in with the other common name, Ribbon Grass.

Maybe the ribbons on the garters to hold up the stockings.

Foxtail Barley from North America.

Beautiful, long, purple, pink awns, just fabulous in the wind.

It really is like a barley, isn't it?

And I think that's been around since the Victorian times as well.

This was one of my mum's favourite grasses, this one.

The Quaking Grass.

This is very naturalistic. Would the Victorians have used this?

I don't think so. Maybe not flamboyant enough.

THEY LAUGH

Do you think my campaign's worthwhile?

Yeah, I think they certainly shouldn't be part of any sort of fashion.

They should be a main staple of our palette of plants that we grow.

'Seeing the history of grasses laid out in front of me is

'so inspiring and makes me

'even more determined to get everyone to fall in love with them again.'

I can't help but think that if more of us embraced this wonderful

group of plants, our gardens could be so much better.

There are so many different grasses out there with different shapes,

sizes and colours and suitable for all sorts of growing conditions.

Here are some ideal for planting at home.

Not all plants look good in the rain and gardeners certainly don't.

However, there are exceptions and this is one of them.

Stipa Gigantea gold fontaene. It's got two heights.

The foliage forms a clump that comes up to your knee

and the flowers get up to 2½ metres.

This is eight, ten feet tall. This is a grass for sun and space.

But look at that, even in the rain it sparkles beautifully.

That's better.

Now, there is a grass for every part of the garden and every situation.

For shade, one of my favourites is the hakone grass.

Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'.

Great for pots, but plant it in the ground

and it lives for absolutely ages, turning into a bean bag-sized

boulder, covered in this lovely yellow foliage.

It deciduously bounces back again in the spring.

But you can see from the range of grasses here there's all

sorts of different colours, and what I love about the blood grass

is this colouring of the leaves. It needs sun to bring it out,

so the brighter the light this is in, the darker those leaves will be.

Festuca 'Elijah Blue', and its foliage, as you can see, is this

sort of aqua blue and it really shimmers in the sunshine.

A lovely little plant for a bright spot. Great in gravel gardens.

Forms sort of cushions of foliage that are evergreen

so it looks good all year round.

If you're after something tropical-looking

and fabulous at the back of the border,

zebra grass is the one.

It has these striped markings on its foliage. Wonderful in drifts,

brilliant as a clump on its own, as a specimen plant

and like all miscanthus, it has hollow stems so insects can

overwinter inside them and that means it's good for wildlife, too.

Grasses can create such an impact,

particularly when they're planted en masse like here at Scampston Hall.

Although set between the original 18th-century walls,

today's grass garden is a more modern addition.

I met with head gardener Paul Smith to find out more.

Do you know, I've never been in a garden that I've wanted to

dive into so much.

And it was Piet Oudolf, the grass grower and trail blazer, that designed this?

He did, yes.

So this is one of, you know

it's almost a real signature piece of design for him.

World-renowned designer Piet Oudolf made this drifts-of-grass area the centrepiece of the garden.

It's made up of only two elements -

a lawn and swathes of purple moor grass.

This is molinia caerulea, a deciduous grass that grows tall with

closely packed stems, creating lots of movement as it

catches in the breeze.

-Now this is a native grass, isn't it?

-It's North Yorkshire.

Would you have planted it if it was grown in Lancashire, Paul?

That's the big question.

Well, probably but we wouldn't make a big thing of it!

Tell me about the season of interest because how much colour

and interest is this molinia going to give you?

The grass is going to start growing about the middle of June

and of course it will change as the season goes on

and it has a real purple sheen to this and the whole thing will

go oaty-brown colour and it runs right through till

the middle of February so when everything else is bedded out

in a traditional garden, we've got all that winter interest as well.

I mean, this just shows how creative you can be with grasses

and I think more people could grow them

and experiment with grasses in their gardens.

You can nearly get 12 months out of the year in ornamental grasses

so that alone is a reason for growing them.

Part of the problem with grasses is the perception is that

they're boring and the long Latin names aren't very inviting, either.

So to gauge public opinion of these wonderful plants,

I'm seeing if they have any takers at a car-boot sale.

You don't want those flowers, mate. You want grasses.

Grasses are where it's at.

I ask a neighbouring car-booter for some selling tips.

What do you think my chances are of selling grasses here, then?

Very remote.

Ten years ago, they were very, very popular but nowadays anything

with a bit of colour, like that colour there - people love that.

Do you shout at people as they're coming past and beckon them in,

or do you let the products do the talking?

No. Products do the talking.

-OK. But mine aren't saying much. That's my problem, is it?

-Yeah!

Colour is all very well but what people don't realise is that

ornamental grasses can also give you colour and -

if you select the right combination - they'll perform all year round.

I'll have to work that into my sales pitch. Here goes.

Madam! Excuse me. Can I interest you in any grasses?

This is evergreen. Stay with you all year round, this one.

Five quid. Yeah, all right, then.

And you are my first customer. Thank you!

We're up and running over here now.

Ah! It's great to get my first sale

but the Latin names are proving problematic.

Helictotrichon sempervirens.

Yeah...saphirsprudel.

They just aren't catchy and don't grab people's attention.

This used to be called stipa arundinacea. That's its Latin name.

Then it's changed its name to oryzopsis

and then it went to um...anemanthele which is a horrendous Latin name.

But as the market gets busier, I do engage more people.

I'd like one of those, actually.

Oh, yeah - lovely and this is a winner.

I'll give you both of those for seven quid.

That's very nice of you.

And soon I'm on a roll.

These are great for shade.

I think we'll have one.

-Come on, five quid.

-All right, then.

Get it in the ground.

I'm thrilled that people have started to take

an interest in grasses but it wasn't easy

and the tricky Latin names are a bit of stumbling block.

So I've hatched another plan.

I'm hitting the airwaves at BBC Radio Gloucestershire,

inviting the public to come up with inspirational common names.

Their Latin names are so rubbish.

Deschampsia cespitosa.

Sounds like a disease.

Well, it's a tropical disorder, isn't it? That's not it.

But this one's even worse. Anemanthele lessoniana.

OK, so this is where you guys come in.

If you can come up with a common name that Toby can then

brand about and just change the face of these grasses,

do get in contact now.

Jethro from Cirencester has already phoned in to say

he likes the name the "whisky grass" because it grows half cut!

But the whisky grass, actually...

Well, it is in fact a grass that does turn bronze in the Autumn.

-LISTENER:

-'I think he said it was from New Zealand

-'and it was pretty easy to grow.'

-Yep. 'And

-I thought, why don't we call it the Easy Kiwi.'

The Easy Kiwi.

A few of the names I've had in for the Deschampsia, um...spiky tufticus.

That says exactly how it grows

because it is a tufty little number, this one.

Positive reaction from the listeners is brilliant

and there are some great ideas coming in.

-How about "whispering grass"?

-Ooh, I like that.

-"Perennial chillax".

-Ooh!

Chillax is a great word.

That is very good.

But some suggestions are frankly better than others.

"Toby's tufted" - I think I'll put a line through.

Ha-ha-ha!

I'll put a line firmly through that one.

-I like "champagne grass".

-Oh, now!

I just...I love champagne. Malcolm in Stroud, hello to you.

"Paradise grass" because there is nothing better than lying

out in the garden on a summer's day.

Toby, best of luck with this. Thank you for coming in today.

That's Toby Buckland there.

Well, that went well. We've got some runners and riders there.

I like "spiky tufticus" and also "champagne grass" for that one.

But the name I like the most for the old Anemanthele lessoniana is

"whisky grass".

Yep, from now henceforth, I shall call this the whisky grass.

Time will tell if my new names catch on

but it seems that people are really on board with my campaign.

Grasses are used so creatively at Scampston Hall,

they're like living sculptures giving rhythm to the borders,

or they're mingled in with other flowers.

But if you want a border where grass is top of the bill,

I've got something for you.

If you dot a few grasses in amongst your existing plants,

you can make any garden seem more fresh and modern.

But if you increase proportion to say 50 or 75% grasses,

you get something completely different.

It always pays to set out your plants first.

Always put the big specimens into position to give you

the shape you're after -

create the backbone, if you like and this is a real cracker.

It's called miscanthus malepartus. It's a feather grass.

They're good for specimens as well as grown in drifts.

Now this one is topped with almost tickle-stick-like flowers.

They have a blackcurrant red tint to them

when they first open but dry to a sparkling silver.

It goes at the back.

Next up, I've got one of my favourite grasses.

It's called panicum heavy metal.

That gunmetal grey is really cracking

and they have these dark purple flowers.

It comes up to shoulder high

and is just the job for planting down the middle of a border.

For maximum impact, use fewer varieties but repeat them

down the length of the space.

Now with really big grasses like the miscanthus, you can either

plant them singly or maybe three to a metre.

As they get smaller down to waist height, you go to about five a metre

and the little tiddlers that just come up to your shins,

you get 5-7 every square metre of ground.

If you're after a specimen grass, you can't beat calamagrostis.

This one is called acutiflora overdam.

It has a lovely yellow tint to the foliage

and it's called season grass giving colour and interest through autumn.

It grows to shoulder height

so just the job right in the middle of the heavy metal panicums.

To tie it all together, I've tried Deschampsia cespitosa or

should I say champagne grass.

And for the edges, a carexal sedge called frosted curls.

So botanically they're not strictly grasses,

however, they behave and look like them.

If you're the type of gardener that hates mowing the lawn

and going round with the edging shears,

let this grass grow long up into the leaves of the carex

and then occasionally come and mow the whole lot down.

You know what? I think that's looking pretty good.

And once you're happy with the layout, get the grasses planted

and add a few flowers as a finishing touch.

I've always liked yarrows or achilleas.

They tend to flop but the grasses act like supports for them.

Everyone loves echinaceas and finally because I love them

so much, a couple of sedums just fills out the front of the border.

And when you stand back

and look at this you think - ooh, there's quite a few flowers in there

but that's because the grasses haven't really got going.

Now this is a border that is mostly grasses,

and because it's mostly grasses it has an incredibly long season

and to all intents and purposes, it will look after itself.

There are a staggering 10,000 species of grass found all over

the globe, so no-one can say there isn't a grass for them.

If you're after something a little more exotic,

this is the place to come. The home of a modern-day plant hunter.

Nick Macer travels the world in search of unusual

and striking plants and grasses, then grows them here

at his nursery garden in Gloucestershire.

-Hello, Nick.

-Hello, Toby.

Tell me about your plant hunting?

Yeah, yeah. It's something I do every year.

I used to do a lot of Mexico but recently China, Vietnam

and the last couple of years, I've been in north-east India.

Are grasses a big part of what you do?

Is it something you're always on the lookout for?

I'm on the lookout for everything, frankly

and there's always an interesting grass to be found.

This whole place has a really exotic look to it and I can't help

but think it's this sort of softness, the abundance that grasses give.

I think grasses go with everything.

They are a lovely linear contrast to all sorts of other form

and I wouldn't be without them.

Nick gives me a tour of his nursery and shows me

some of his more exotic grasses.

-That's actually eragrostis curvula.

-Ooh!

That was collected in South Africa.

When these come out they are like... well, it's like mist, in fact.

It's incredibly fine.

And then this billows out to the point where you can't

actually get though here.

This is chionochloa rubra, the red tussock grass from New Zealand.

It covers many of the mountains.

With a bit of winter cold, they can go really orange.

Orange-tinted.

Ooh, I like the look of this. Is this miscanthus nepalensis?

It is, yeah.

We grew it on from seed we collected in North Vietnam,

right on the Chinese border.

I don't think I've ever seen a grass present such a strong gold colour.

Nick's nursery is fascinating.

Each wild grass is unique with natural variations not

seen in grasses that have been propagated or cloned commercially.

Because I grow the green one and this is lovely.

This is just a sort of natural mutation. A natural thing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's the great thing about going to the wild.

That is one of the most important points

because the amount of genetic difference out in the wild is huge.

Plants you buy in your average garden centre,

so many of them are micro-propagated nowadays.

If a plant is divided over and over,

-you may get one clone in cultivation.

-Yeah.

But you're bringing in seed variation

and every plant has got its own characteristic. Yeah.

So right there is a good reason for people to grow grasses

and to get grasses that have been brought in by plant hunters.

It's fantastic to see these exotic plants thriving on British soil.

It just goes to show how adaptable grasses are

and what natural variety there is out there.

There's one particular grass that's loved and loathed in equal measure

but many people don't even know that it's a member of the grass family -

bamboo.

As with all grasses, there are many varieties, from ground huggers

to towering tree-like specimens

and I'm going to show you how to get the best out of it in your garden.

Basically, there are two types of bamboos -

there are those that have clump-forming roots that stay

relatively tame and then there are the runners that spread

almost endlessly and they do that on these roots and along them the buds

break and come up as new "culms" - is the technical word -

or bamboo canes and a plant like this can spread two, three, four, five metres

in a single season.

If you're going to have a running bamboo, you need to contain

the roots and you do it with this stuff.

Plastic root barrier.

Lots of different types of this stuff but essentially it is

a 75cm-deep piece of plastic that you bury down into the soil.

It doesn't need a base, because bamboo doesn't root deeply.

Make sure the edges overlap by a couple of feet

and tape them together so the roots can't get between.

Now the bamboo I've got here is a really lovely thing.

It's a phyllostachys aurea.

What I always do is just set the bamboo a little bit deeper

than it was in its pot.

Just the bottom couple of inches.

I find that they tend to like that.

It keeps the root ball a bit moist.

Add a bit more compost.

Because if you feed them, you get just magnificently tall canes

and they come up nice and thick as well.

And the final job, once you've given the plant a good water-in,

is to trim down the plastic.

Leave it a few centimetres proud of the soil surface,

because the roots grow along sideways and then go up and over.

But if you leave the plastic high, there's less likelihood

that that will happen and if they do, well, it's not the end of the world.

Just go along with a pair of secateurs and snip them off

to keep them confined. Like any new plant,

it's going to need to be kept watered, particularly in

its first year and one thing to make bamboo look more elegant is a bit of pruning.

Now in early spring before the new shoots starts to grow,

trim out any old tired culms as close to the ground as you can possibly go.

You make the plant more airy

and you get more rustle as the culms move around in the breeze.

So there you have it.

A bamboo plant that is contained and won't take over your garden.

Someone who shares my passion for grasses is David Matzdorf,

who's found a creative and striking way of growing them

at his eco-friendly home in North London.

So I've got two gardens.

The front garden here, which is a bit of a tropical rainforest

impression and then once you get on the roof, it's a bit

more like a sort of Mexican hillside style.

I've discovered that the only place really sunny enough to get

other smaller grasses to thrive is up on the green roof.

I grow a wild variety of stuff up here

but the grasses have a texture all of their own.

Some of them have been very successful, some of them

have been way too successful.

I optimistically thought that the shallow soil

and the shade conditions would control this very invasive

grass which is Phalaris arundinacea picta.

Clearly it didn't. It's gone mad.

If you choose grasses which have nicely textured flowers,

some have different coloured leaves,

you can get some really good contrast effects.

I'd love to coach more people to do green roofs on their houses, sheds, garages.

There are all sorts of really significant ecological benefits

but also, it's really nice up here.

It's like having a different kind of garden.

I hope my revival has got you thinking about grasses

in a new light.

We have after all been growing them in the UK for hundreds of years

and all the time, new varieties and creative ways of using them

have been developed.

They're not just the plant of the now -

grasses are the plant of the future.