23rd July 2008

Tom Hart Dyke, intrepid plant hunter and creator of the BBC featured World Garden at his home Lullingstone Castle, writes about a new plant passion.
 
The best Christmas present ever arrived last week…..yes, it may have been a little late, but it was a parcel which set my pulse racing and my body sweating with excitement. The parcel in question had actually been sent by myself from Ecuador in the middle of December, and the middle of the most successful plant hunting expedition I've undertaken.
 
I travelled to Ecuador in December 07 looking for 'Puya's – a relation of the pineapple. The parcel in question contained thirteen species of Puya never ever grown in the UK before.

The parcel took ages to arrive, via airmail and Dartford's sorting office. I received a card saying that I could I come and pick it up and I was in the car faster than you could say 'Puya'. I got to Dartford, and rushed in to the sorting office with my card. I had to produce my passport, and the guy at the counter took his time retrieving the goods. I could see the parcel and I began to drool at the prospect of opening it, but before the friendly postie handed over the box he wanted to have a discussion about our old neighbour Trevor, the World Garden and Lullingstone. All I wanted was the parcel! Finally I got to touch the parcel. The postie asked me: 'is it something for the Garden?' I replied, 'yes, it's the best Christmas present ever and it's arrival has made my most recent plant hunting trip to South America, the most successful ever!'

 
I raced back to Lullingstone with the magic package. The parcel contained packets of seeds and the seeds of the Puya hamata – the largest Puya in Ecuador. It's never been tried in UK soil (to my knowledge). It's monocarpic, which means that it dies after flowering.
 
I collected the thirteen Puyas from the Paramo region and travelled along the Andes, from the borders o f Colombia to the borders of Peru at differing altitudes from 2000 metres to 5000 metres.
 
Puya's are just fantastic, in fact they're running a joint race at the moment with the orchid as my all time favourite plant. What makes them so special? Well, although the Puya obsession only started a few weeks ago, I can tell you quite a lot about this fantastic ornamental plant. They're bromelliads, a pineapple relation. They're terrestrial – they grow in the ground and not in the trees, like most bromelliads. In actual fact there's not a lot known about these wonderful plant, and it flummoxes me as to why they're not better known. The big spiny leaves that are sometimes slightly ornamentally furry, produce tumultous rosettes and enormous flower spikes that are so seductive. The flower spikes can grow to thirty feet, and the energy spent producing such a shooting star often results in death to the plant. One species of Puya's from Bolivia - Puya raimondii - has the biggest inflorescence (flower spike) in the world, over 30 feet in fact!!! And as I said, the obsession with the Puya is really competing with my well developed orchid obsession. I don't know how long this particular planty obsession is going to last, but as it stands at the moment I have more than anyone else in the UK, or possibly Europe. California has the biggest registered collection of about 25, and I'm close to that.
 

I have a special package of seeds to give to Harry Hay – a world renowned plants man who distributes seeds via his brilliant seed catalogue each year. Harry is brilliant. He's in his 80s and still going strong. I'm going to present him with 12 species of Puya in seed form and a Daisy Tree – Espeletia pycnophylla collected from the Andes of Ecuador near the Colombian border. I only hope that Harry shares my growing obsession with Puyas!

To find out more about Tom's stunning garden with plants from across the world, you can visit the website here;
www.lullingstonecastle.co.uk  Lullingstone Castle is currently booking tours of the House and Garden for the 2009 season, ideal for groups who love heritage and gardens. The house and gardens are also open to the public thoroughout this summer until the end of September and makes a great day out. Reservations: 01322 862114
 

Credit: Lullingstone Castle - Tom in Plant Paradise!