Kent cacti house to rival Kew

Modern-day plant hunter, Tom Hart Dyke, has unveiled his all-new Cacti and Succulent House in a corner of his famous World Garden at Lullingstone Castle and hopes that the 1,000 species it contains will make it the biggest private collection of cacti and succulents in the UK – rivalling even Kew Gardens.

Speaking at the launch, Tom said he didn’t know what to call his Cacti House. “I threw it open to the public, and the response was brilliant – we had emails from all over the country, and in the end we picked a great name: Hot and Spiky. All I can say is, it sums up the new project really well.”

The mural painted on the back wall of Hot and Spiky was created by Plaxtol artist Will Jordan, who has been on site since early January, rendering and painting the wall with masonry paints. Will commented: “They’re not the kind of colours you’d choose to paint your house in, they’re red, orange, green, purple, black and two types of blue, but they work really well in Hot and Spiky.

The Cacti House is planted out in five themed beds, including Mexico, The Canaries, the USA and South America, mirroring the theme of Tom’s World Garden, laid out in the shape of a map of the world. It includes cacti donated from the collection of local expert Jim Earles from Eltham, whose Golden Barrels have pride of place in the Mexican border.