New Cacti and Succulent House for Lullingstone

The new Cacti and Succulent House at Lullingstone Castle will be unveiled on Saturday 22nd March when the World Garden opens its gates for the 2008 season. Tom Hart Dyke, the maverick gardener based in Kent, hopes to wow the horticultural world with his new attraction containing arguably the biggest private collection of Cacti and Succulents in the UK.

Tom has been busy planting up the new beds but has been so busy he’s forgotten to come up with a new name for the Cacti House. Tom explains:'I don't really know what to call it, it would kill me to call it 'The Cacti & Succulent House' - that's so boring! We're in need of some assistance here with the name and we'd love to throw it open to the public who have been so supportive of our project to date'. The new house will contain close to 1,000 species of cacti and succulents collected by modern day plant hunter Tom.

The new house will be planted out in five country-themed beds including Mexico, USA, the Canaries and America. The new house will cover the entire south wall of the World Garden sitting on the site of the ancient Glass Houses from the Edwardian period.

Ventilating the new house will be very important and Tom will keep it at 5 degrees c minimum. “Wheel chair access is a must, so we've built the path at 3 foot 6 wide, on level ground so that it's easy to negotiate,” explains Tom. “The beds themselves will be a mixture (no soil) of gravel, stones, flint, coal, charcoal to give drainage, and will be raised a maximum of a metre from the ground. Children's coloured play pit sand together with blue recycled glass will be used for the cacti mulch covering in the 5 beds I'm currently considering using purple sand!’

So, what’s in a name? Tom's own suggestion, ‘The Zerophytic House’ fell on deaf ears at Lullingstone - most of the volunteers were left wondering what he was going on about - it actually means lover of dry and arid climes! The new house will be opened by Jim Earles, from Eltham and hopefully by then will have a name.