What do you call thse thingies that you put in the ground with string between them to stop plants falling on to the lawn?

[KatyMac]

And do they come in iron? Rather than plastic?

TIA

They go by different names but I just googled 'plant supports' and got a lot of links. Put a couple below, but I'm pretty sure you can get them cheaper. I have seen metal ones at my local garden centres.

various types

expensive metal ones

Perfect just what my dad wants

Thank you so much (second link - 5 for £30)

He has a converted barn & his garden is very mportant to him ?

Oohhh, glad to be of help - we have quite a few things similar to those lying around the place here - they were used to hold guttering in place on older buildings .