Tom Hart Dyke

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Thomas Hart Dyke (born c. 1976) is an English horticulturist and plant hunter. He is the designer of The World Garden of Plants at the family seat of Lullingstone Castle, Eynsford, Kent in southern England. The World Garden contains over 10 000 species of plants, many collected by Hart Dyke from their native environments.

1 Kidnapping
2 World Garden of Plants
3 References
4 Further reading
5 Further reading

[edit] Kidnapping

Hart Dyke follows a tradition of Victorian and Edwardian British plant hunters, like Francis Masson, who risked life and limb to acquire rare species of plant. In 2000, Hart Dyke was kidnapped by suspected FARC guerilllas in the Darien Gap, Panama while hunting for rare orchids. He was held captive for nine months and threatened with death. He kept himself going by creating a design for a garden containing plants collected on his plant hunting trips, laid out in the shape of a world map according to their continent of origin.^[1]

[edit] World Garden of Plants

On his return to Lullingstone Castle, Hart Dyke put his design into practice within the walls of the family's Victorian herb garden. The story of the creation of The World Garden of Plants was the subject of a BBC2 series, "Save Lullingstone Castle" (KEO Films). The 2nd series 'Return To Lullingstone Castle' (KEO Films) Monday 19th March 2007 8.30pm BBC2 (6x30 mins) continues to follow the story of Hart Dyke's World Garden.

In May 2006, Hart Dyke had a major horticultural achievement at the World Garden when he managed to get an Australian Eucalyptus Caesia plant, Silver Princess, to flower for the first time in the UK.^[2]

The World Garden and Lullingstone Castle are open to the public.