VAL BOURNE says smaller plants are losing out to the taller varieties

A lot of my time is spent hanging around in nurseries and lingering longingly by plant stalls - a habit developed over 40 years as a plantaholic. This year I have noticed a new trend. Gardeners are honing in on tall, airy plants and ignoring the compact blobs garden centres would like us all to grow.

Call me cynical, but short plants fit conveniently on to the shelves of Danish trolleys and most plants are delivered like this. I have always thought compact plants were mainly pups - usually very rigid straight-stemmed pups often labelled as suitable for the patio. They don't sit in the border well. Successful plants have to get on and integrate. But gardeners are finally dismissing the short plants and going for lanky varieties which reach 4 or 5ft. Taller thalictrums, sanguisorbas, grasses, huge yellow daisies, giant crocosmias and man-high pokers are eagerly being bought and squeezed through car doors.

When I go down any motorway I can see drivers peering through foliage and flowers.

I have always loved tall plants. I think it's because I was knee high to a fairy when I started gardening and I found myself staring into flowers transfixed. As I look out of my study window I can see the pale-lemon daises of Ratibida pinnata mingling among the beaded awns of Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea Transparent'.

Occasionally, they bash into the brown bobbles left by the raspberry-red flowers of Sanguisorba officinalis Arnhem' and all of these are taller than me. The dark cones of the ratibida are already picking up the dark beads of the molinia and the brown burrs of the sanguisorba. When I go outside I can feel their delicate, protective presence, like the gardener's version of net curtains.

The delightful thing about tall plants is you can see them against the sky. They connect heaven and earth and as most gardeners want to create their own private paradise tall plants are an essential. Some provide strong verticals, like late-flowering poker Prince Igor' and aconitum Arendsii. Others provide airy movement and an ephemeral presence.

Tall late-summer and autumn performers are even more desirable because as the sun sinks lower into the sky the light becomes crystal clear and low enough to backlight taller plants and make them more dramatic.

For this reason I have planted lots of varieties of Miscanthus sinensis. Although the plumes vary in colour when the soft plumes first emerge in August - from the wine-red Ferne Osten' to the pink Rotsilber' through to the silver-beige Silberfeder' - all will fade to creamy white by late October.

I have also planted my first Pampas grass, a variegated form from Notcutts called Cortaderia selloana Silver Feather'. The green and cream vision is heightened by some new beefy crocosmias (including Orange River', Walburton's Red' and the dark-leaved Saracen') plus a dark sedum called Postman's Pride'. All are from Bob Brown, of Cotswold Garden Flowers (google or telephone 01386 833849).

Over the years, I have assembled some towering, self-supporting perennials to mingle among the grasses. Aster laevis Calliope' has dark leaves and stems and large lavender-blue flowers in September. Vernonia arkansana ( previously V. crinita) is a North-American aster look alike with tight heads of purple flowers - also in September. Helianthus Lemon Queen' is dark-centred lemon daisy and one of the few that stays in a tight clump. Monarda Squaw' is a red monarda with attitude. The stems are stiff and provide a good seed head. More importantly the plant is robust enough not to disappear in wet winters (here) and strong enough to compete with tall grasses.