A SPECIALIST gardener in Wimborne is urging people to plant elm trees in a bid to restore the UK's distinct landscape immortalised in John Constable paintings.

Since the 1970s more than 20 million British elms have been lost to the ravages of Dutch elm disease, and only this week the National Trust announced that it has no choice this winter but to fell some 1,875 infected elms on the Purbeck Estate before they become a threat to public safety.

But Neil Lucas, owner of Knoll Gardens in Hampreston, says that he is now the sole UK importer of an American version of the elm that can withstand the disease.

And he says he plans to appear on Gardener's Question Time in January talking about the Princeton Elm at the Prince of Wales' home Highgrove House where Mr Lucas has supplied an entire avenue of the US tree.

"In the BBC series, The Trees that Made Britain, Tony Kirkham, head of arboretum at Kew Gardens, appealed to everyone to go out and plant a tree this winter," said Mr Lucas.

"I'd ask them to plant an elm tree.

"While the landscape will never return to the glory of Constable's era, this is one way that everyone can make a difference.

"My hope is that these handsome and noble specimens will soon be planted in sufficient numbers to start restoring the elm throughout the British Isles."

Dutch Elm disease is spread quickly from tree to tree by elm bark beetles, causing a fungus, which blocks the tree's water conduction and eventually kills it.

But the American version, which is used stateside to create magnificent avenues, has remained in perfect condition for the past 80 years.