• spoken word

The gardener first shot to international prominence when he was kidnapped while on a plant hunting expedition in the Colombian jungle.

To keep his sanity while he was held captive, he planned a world garden for his home Lullingstone Castle. Today that garden opens its doors to thousands of visitors from all over the world.

Tom will be talking about the world's biggest flower spike The Queen Of The Andes, showing some unbelievable pictures of them in flower. He will also describe some extremely rare flora from the Canary Island of El Hierro - including the oldest known specimen of the Canary Island Juniper.

He will be bringing an almost unheard of plant flowering for the first time in the UK, The Cape Verde Borage, from a collection he made a few years ago. We've been informed it's just coming into flower!

WHY? The story of this capture and subsequent plant hunting expeditions to develop his World Garden into what it is today, is told with passion and great humour

Read an article here by Tom Hart Dyke in The Financial Times.

Read Tom's blog in The Guardian here.

Click here to visit Tom’s website.
Click here to read about the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle.