Just over 25 years ago a Kent horticulturist was kidnapped and held captive for nine months by a gang of armed guerrilla fighters while on the hunt for new plants in Colombia.

On the anniversary of the terrifying ordeal, Tom Hart Dyke tells KentOnline how being told he would be executed led to the creation of a stunning garden at one of the county’s castles...

In 2005, five years after Tom, who is also an author, was taken, he opened his dream garden to the public for the first time – an idea he thought he would never become a reality.

The idea of the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle, in Eynsford, was born on a day which Tom believed would be his last after he was kidnapped in a Colombian jungle back in 2000.

While trekking through the Darién Gap, a roadless, lawless jungle between Panama and Colombia, he and a friend were taken by guerrilla fighters who were using the region as a hideout during the South American country’s long-running armed conflict.

Told he might not live to see another day, he picked up his diary and began to draw the garden of his dreams.

Fortunately, he survived, and four years later, the idea he imagined in the face of death became real.

But Tom’s love for gardening started long before that. It began when he was just three years old, after his beloved grandmother gave him a packet of carrot seeds.

“That was it - I was hooked,” he said.

Tom would go on to study tree surgery, fall in love with orchids, particularly the ghostly, otherworldly Dracula orchid, an unusual plant found in the forest of central and South America, known for its eerie, face-like flower.

He spent his early twenties travelling the world in search of rare and original plants – including the infamous trip where he was kidnapped and held for nine months.

Twelve weeks into their ordeal, on June 16, the captors told them they would be executed that evening.

“Paul prayed. I designed a garden,” Tom recalls. “That idea kept me sane.”

He sketched a world map made of plants, each species growing in the country it came from.

Tom was released just before Christmas in 2000.

“They finally realised I wasn’t a spy or a CIA agent,” he said. “My mum laughed and said I’d probably bored them to death with all my talk about gardens and plants.”

He returned to Lullingstone Castle, the family home where the Hart Dykes have lived for 20 generations. But he hadn’t forgotten his jungle dream.

At the heart of the estate sat an 18th-century walled vegetable garden, once used by his great-grandmother, which Tom took over to bring his vision to life.

With the help of friends and family, he began planting, digging, clearing weeds and brambles, and slowly, the idea from the jungle started to take shape.

The garden is laid out like a map of the world and the planting beds represent continents, separated by large boulders which come from the same countries as the plants.

Visitors enter the garden through a moon gate – a round Victorian archway – with South America on the right, and Africa opposite, filled with bold, architectural plants.

Asia, including Japan, Siberia, and China, grows in the shaded, north-facing beds.

In front of the gate lies Europe, with vibrant green Ireland placed proudly at the front.

Flags flutter above the countries, and small decorative touches, inspired by each region, bring the display to life.

Tom said: “There’s even a Darien Gap path cutting between continents, honouring the place where I was abducted.”

He created it to mark the darkest moment in his life, and the place where the idea for the garden was born.

Cacti, orchids, and other plants which can’t tolerate the Kentish valley conditions are grown in greenhouses, where special environments are carefully maintained.

There’s a dedicated cactus house, where some specimens reach all the way to the ceiling, their sharp spines just waiting to catch someone passing by.

The ones closest to the paths have wine corks popped onto their tips for protection. While some of the cacti come with cheeky nicknames.

One is affectionately called “dog willy”, while another has been dubbed “old man’s willy” – names that never fail to leave visitors smiling, Tom says.

The second greenhouse is a jungle, filled with climbing plants and orchids gifted to Tom by various organisations and friends.

“The Lithuanians are crazy about orchids,” he says. “I’ve got quite a few from them.”

The middle greenhouse features a Moroccan garden, inspired by Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh, famously restored by fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

Here, you'll find aromatic herbs, succulents, spiky agaves, and vibrant pelargoniums, all arranged in bold geometric beds, evoking the colours and heat of North Africa.

Tom is proud of his Chatham Island forget-me-not flower which only blooms with Scottish seaweed carefully washed and applied by hand around them.

But he also moans about visitors pointing out that his labels are out of date, as plant classifications are regularly reviewed and updated, botanists keep changing their names.

In 2003, Tom co-wrote a book with fellow captive Paul Winder titled The Cloud Garden, telling the full story of their kidnapping and the garden idea that helped him survive.

Just two years later, in 2005, his project at Lullingstone won the British Guild of Travel Writers UK Tourism Award – recognised for its originality, powerful backstory, and the unique way it brings the world to life through plants.

Tom’s story became the subject of BBC documentaries, and in 2017 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) for his contributions to public life and botany.

“I talk to the plants,” he adds. “They talk back, in my head, obviously! My cacti are my mates.”

Even now, 20 years later, he’s still out in the garden before sunrise -sometimes well after sunset - head torch on, pruning, planting, and laughing.

“This place grew out of fear. But now it’s full of joy. It’s my jungle dream, right here in Kent.”