Tom Hart Dyke
| Tom Hart Dyke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Thomas Guy Hart Dyke 12 April 1976 |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Horticulturist, author, plant hunter |
Thomas Guy Hart Dyke (born 12 April 1976) is an English horticulturist, author and plant hunter from the Hart Dyke family. He is the son and heir of Guy and Sarah Hart Dyke at the family seat of Lullingstone Castle, Eynsford, Kent.[1] He is the designer of the World Garden of Plants located on the property. The World Garden contains approximately 8,000 species of plants, many collected by Hart Dyke from their native environments. He presented an episode of Great British Garden Revival in 2013.
Early life and education
Hart Dyke attended a state primary school in Eynsford and then transferred to St. Michael's School in Otford. He attended Stanbridge Earls in Hampshire until age seventeen and then entered Sparsholt College Hampshire, near Winchester, where he studied tree surgery and forestry.[1]
In an interview in 2006, Hart Dyke credits his grandmother as having first interested him in plants at age three.[1]
Tom Hart Dyke is first cousin of the English comedian Miranda Hart and nephew of Captain David Hart Dyke CBE LVO RN,[2] commanding officer of HMS Coventry when it was sunk by the Argentinians in the 1982 Falklands conflict.
Kidnapping
Hart Dyke follows a tradition of Victorian and Edwardian British plant hunters, such as Francis Masson, who risked life and limb to acquire rare species of plant. In 2000, Hart Dyke was kidnapped by suspected FARC guerrillas in the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia while hunting for rare orchids, a plant for which he has a particular passion.
He and his travel companion, Paul Winder, were 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 trips, laid out in the shape of a world map according to their continent of origin.[3]
Tom wrote about his experiences in Colombia in his book, The Cloud Garden. The story of his kidnapping ordeal was dramatised in the Sky1 documentary series "My Holiday Hostage Hell".
World Garden of Plants
On his return home, 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 6-episode series, "Save Lullingstone Castle" (KEO Films) in 2006. This was followed by a second 6-episode series, "Return To Lullingstone Castle" on BBC2 in 2007.
In May 2006, Hart Dyke managed to get an Australian Eucalyptus caesia plant (common name Silver Princess) to flower for the first time in the UK.[4] He was inspired by orchids at his first school, St. Michaels, Otford, Kent.
Hart Dyke featured in the PBS Nova programme in 2002, Orchid Hunter that documented his return to hunting rare orchids in dangerous terrain in another politically unstable area in Irian Jaya in the rainforests of Western New Guinea.[5]
See also
References
Notes
- 1 2 3 Sale, Jonathan (2006-04-20). "Passed/Failed: an education in the life of Tom Hart Dyke, orchid hunter". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
- ↑ "Miranda Katharine Hart Dyke". The Peerage.
- ↑ "Award for jungle captive's garden". BBC News. 2005-11-14. Retrieved 2006-10-04.
- ↑ "Silver Princess Flowers for The First Time Ever in the UK". 2006-06-06. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
- ↑ "Orchard hunter". pbs.org. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
Bibliography
- Hart Dyke, Tom; Winder, Paul (2004-02-02). The Cloud Garden. Corgi. ISBN 978-0-552-77120-7.
- Hart Dyke, Tom (2007-03-01). An Englishman's Home: Adventures of an Eccentric Gardener. Bantam. ISBN 978-0-593-05698-1. ISBN 0-593-05698-1.