Could you give us a close-up of one of the flowers? Looks like it is one of the grasses, but the flower shape is wrong for that.

Looks a bit Thrifty.

Ohhhhh.... we get this in regularly at work. Can't for the life of me remember it's name. It's allied to the sedge family but produces tiny dense pincushion type flowers on long stems. Mind has gone blank.....sorry. I will investigate.......

ps, It does look "Thrifty" but is a houseplant Heron :-)

Got it!

http://www.wildchicken.com/nature/garden/nature_200_140.htm

isnt it a lovely plant. it does look sedge like doesnt it. I have seen them but never bought one.

So Fractal what is it? I cannot follow links with this connection,

Syngonanthus chrysanthus 'Mikado'

Cultural details
Aspect
Bright but indirect light. Needs humid surroundings.

Soil
Acid compost (pH of 4-5). Well drained but kept moist at all times.

Hardiness
Tender - best grown between 19-22°C.

Maintenance
Because of its origin as a swamp plant, humidity should be kept high, at around 70% if possible. Keeping the plant in a tall, straight sided glass vase, or a deep bowl, and spraying it regularly with filtered water will help to keep the humidity level up. Water regularly, from the bottom of the pot rather than from above, and don’t allow the compost to dry out. The best place for it would probably be a bright, warm bathroom, unless you can provide its exact requirements elsewhere.

May be susceptible to aphids. May be affected by fungal attack if humidity is too high.

I followed Fractals links.

Thanks. We have very very slow Dialup and following a link from within a message is just impossible.

Ob, are you copying and pasting the link or just clicking on it?

It does not matter ,to go to a new Web site can take 20 minutes for us for the whole page to load up. And I am not that keen on going to unknown Websites. We have been caught like that before where we have finished up looking at some very strange things. (Not that you would do that I hasten to add!).

Brilliant folks - Syngonanthus chrysanthus 'Mikado' it is. I was told to keep it dry by the "experts" at the garden centre and so that advice was only 100% wrong - you've probably saved a life. Many thanks to all for your help.

Amazing I hadn't heard of this plant until yesterday. But today in our local paper there is the usual tat that falls out advertising different things for sale in local supermarkets etc.
This plant can be bought at Lidl for £3.99 or 2 for £6.00
So I might go and treat my self tomorrow.

Well, did you treat yourself? :-)