Sizzling Succulents, Cracking Cacti, Dazzling Dahlias, Hungry Carnivorous plants. There’s no shortage of plants to amaze!

The All Hands September visit to the Lullingstone World Gardens was thoroughly enjoyed. The weather was lovely and we were treated to a guided tour by Tom Hart Dyke, whose family has lived at the Castle (really a Manor House) for 400 years. Tom planned the garden whilst being held in the jungles of Columbia by gun toting guerrilla, he had been on a plant hunting trip. When told he had hours to prepare for death, he sat down and planned the World Garden. Possibly his enthusiasm for plants was what saved him. He kept talking to his captors about plants ,and in the end they let him go. His mother commented that what saved his life was he didn’t stop talking. The guerrillas couldn’t take any more!

The World gardens are divided into raised beds representing each of the continents and some larger Islands, each planted with the appropriate native plants and there has been something in flower every month of the year except for the frozen winter of 2010.

His love of plants was sparked by his amazing grannie, who in the war had a silk farm based on white mulberries. She produced parachute silk and also silk for various royal robes. She was still wielding a chainsaw in her mid 80’s.