‘It’s a wonderful honour to be patron of the Orchid Study Group, which has inspired me to continue to botanically explore the wondrous world of orchids. Furthermore, it’s also an honour to be associated with an organisation that enthuses and encourages like-minded folk to appreciate this superbly diverse family.’
A Modern-Day Plant hunter, author, T.V personality and creator of the World Garden at his home in Lullingstone, has been our Patron since 2008.
Tom Hart Dyke first shot to international prominence in the year 2000, when he was kidnapped in the Panamanian jungle on a plant hunting expedition that went dangerously wrong.
Tom and his travelling companion, Paul Winder, were kidnapped while trekking through ‘The Darien Gap’, a dangerous place abandoned by all to warring guerrilla factions. Tom and Paul were kidnapped on Tom’s sister’s birthday 16th March 2000 and were held for nine months and released on 16th December 2000. During the nine month ordeal The British Embassy gave the boys up for dead, but Tom and Paul’s parents never gave up hope.
The idea for The World Garden was born in the depths of despair in the Colombian jungle. Midday on June 16th 2000, three months into their kidnap ordeal, Tom and his fellow captive Paul Winder, were told to prepare to die that night. Paul spent the afternoon of that fateful day in prayer, but Tom decided that the best course of action would be to spend his final day on Earth designing his dream garden! He spent the day drawing plans, in his diary, for a World Garden – containing the plants he’d collected from across the globe, planted out in their respective countries of origin.
Luckily for Tom, Paul and their families, the boys were not executed, but were released in time for Christmas 2000.
Tom Hart Dyke: Tom is 42 years old and was born on 12th April 1976 in Kent, UK.
Jungle tale:
After Tom’s return home to his ancestral home of Lullingstone Castle, near Sevenoaks, in Kent, Tom and Paul (Winder) penned the best-selling book The Cloud Garden (Transworld 2002) detailing their experiences in the jungle. Tom’s jungle antics – building gardens in the mountains, much to the annoyance of his captors, cemented his reputation as a ‘plant nut’. Later, Tom wrote another book – An Englishman’s Home – detailing the trials and tribulations of developing the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle.
TV Personality:
In 2001, Tom travelled to South East Asia with KEO films to make A Dangerous Obsession (Channel 4, summer 2002) – the story of Tom’s search for an orchid to name after his beloved Gran, Mary Hart Dyke (nicknamed ‘Crac’ by Tom). Tom’s search for an unnamed species was fruitless, but the subsequent programme brought him to the attention of many. Kathryn Flett from the Observer named him ‘the new David Bellamy’ for his enthusiasm for his beloved subject – ‘orchids’.
2000-2007 Saving Lullingstone Castle & Return to Lullingstone Castle (KEO films for BBC2)-The story of the creation of The World Garden:
The idea for The World Garden was born in the depths of despair in the Colombian jungle. Midday on June 16th 2000, three months into their kidnap ordeal, Tom and his fellow captive Paul Winder, were told to prepare to die that night. Paul spent the afternoon of that fateful day in prayer, but Tom decided that the best course of action would be to spend his final day on Earth designing his dream garden! He spent the day drawing plans, in his diary, for a World Garden – containing the plants he’d collected from across the globe, planted out in their respective countries of origin.
Luckily for Tom, Paul and their families, the boys were not executed, but were released in time for Christmas 2000.
Since his release from captivity, Tom has been busy building the ‘World’ in his back garden at Lullingstone Castle. Under the watchful eye of KEO Films/BBC, the man, known locally as ‘the Plant Nut’, has been filmed commandeering his Granny’s 18th Century Walled Garden, within the grounds of the Castle, to create his jungle dream.
Every stage of Tom’s jungle project has been filmed for the 12 part BBC2 series Saving Lullingstone & Return to Lullingstone. The garden opened to the public in March 2005 and has seen a steady stream of visitors entering through the 18th century moon gate, and traversing the pathways (or seas) as they literally walk around the ‘world in under 80 minutes’.
Tom’s garden won the prestigious British Guild of Travel Writers UK Tourism Award 2005.
Family: Tom is heir to Lullingstone Castle in Kent. Tom is the twentieth generation of the Hart Dyke’s to live at the Castle. The Castle was a favourite of Queen Anne and was visited by a young Henry VIII.
Schooled in Kent at St Michaels (primary), Otford, and later at Standbridge Earls School, nr Romsey, Hampshire, Tom’s horticultural passion, nurtured by his beloved grandmother Mary Hart Dyke, led him to study tree surgery at Sparsholt College, Hampshire.
Travels: Funded by his self-employed tree surgery work, Tom spent his early twenties travelling the world in search of rare orchids and plants. One such trip – a three week ‘cycling’ expedition from Kent UK to Lisbon in Portugal to see wild flowers in their native habitat, resulted in a very sore bottom.
Horticultural history: With his Gran’s encouragement Tom started early, aged 3, with a trowel and a packet of carrot seeds, he says; ‘I’ve never looked back since!’
Tom’s orchid fascination began at St Michael’s Primary School, Kent; ‘I came across the wonderful bee orchid and was hooked – the bee orchid mimics a randy female bee by emitting pheromones to attract the male bee – ensuring pollination!!!’
Tom’s inspiration: ‘without a doubt my life’s inspiration is my horticulturally endowed granny who sadly passed away in August 2010, aged nearly 96!
Crac’s delight: In 2005, Tom finally found a hitherto unnamed plant species that he could name after his Gran: ‘Penstemon Crac’s Delight’.
Tom’s Mini Biog:
Tom Hart Dyke is a plant hunter, plantsman and a plant nut who, ever since ‘germination’, was nurtured by his massively influential granny who gave him a packet of carrot seed and a trowel at the age of three! His grandmother was his best friend, both bonded by a shared passion for the outdoors, and in particular, by orchids. Tom’s first orchid from granny, aged 9, was a hardy Dactylorhiza majalis – which he still grows today. This led in his teenage years to experimenting with exotic orchids from Tropical America and South East Asia – particularly the genera Pleurothallis, Coelogyne, Cymbidium and Brassia. Tom has itchy botanical feet and in 1998 travelled to North Thailand to observe Paphiopedilum bellatulum in the wild, be wowed by the Singapore Botanical Garden and embark on a sponsored orchid-hunting trip (through the Finnis Scott Foundation) to the Mentawain Island of Siberut, off Western Sumatra, Indonesia. This botanically eye- opening trip enabled Tom to improve his orchid husbandry by observing the habitats of wild populations.
And despite 9 months of captivity as a hostage during the millennium year, whilst on an orchid hunt in Panama and Colombia, he hasn’t been put off further travels to far-flung climes and still has a crystal-clear mission in life: creating and further developing the World Garden (modelled on maps sketched in his diary during his captivity) which has a worldwide reputation for excellence and will ultimately keep his home at Lullingstone Castle financially afloat.