A plant hunter, a kidnapping, and the garden that saved a castle.
We spent a day at Lullingstone Castle with Tom Hart Dyke, 20th heir to the estate, for The Telegraph. He turned out to have quite a story.
Tom is a plant hunter and travelled the world looking for rare species he could bring back to the UK.
While he was looking for a rare orchid in Colombia, he, along with 3 others, got kidnapped and taken deep into the jungle - where he was held captive for 9 months and threatened at gunpoint daily. His friends were killed off, some accidentally. Tom was assumed dead by those closest to him and a memorial was held for Tom in the UK.
When he was told one day had 5 hours to live, Tom passed his time by drawing up and designing a "world garden" in his diary.
He and one other eventually escaped by speedboat and stumbled across two rangers who radioed the consulate; who in turn thought it was all a hoax as Tom had "died" ages ago.
Eventually after much negotiation, they sent someone to rescue him.
When back at Lullingstone Castle, Tom put the world garden into action. It's fascinating and has an amazing array of really peculiar plants! In fact, the garden has saved Lullingstone from the depths of financial ruin!
Filmed in a day at Lullingstone by Shooting Producer/Director, Charlie.