Lullingstone Castle

Tom proudly unveiled his flowering Eucalpytus Caesia  ‘silver princess’ to visitors at his unique ‘World Garden of Plants’ in May.

Tom said "‘I first noticed the buds on the Silver Princess last August, but she’s taken eight months  to flower. When she came into bloom last week I called Dr John Purse at Primabio to tell him, and he told me straight away to ring the President of the Australian Plants Society, Jeff Irons, to confirm that it was a first. 

"When I told  Jeff, he nearly dropped the phone, he was well chuffed.  He told me to take all the exact measurements and to record the flowering", Tom said.

Both Jeff Irons and Dr John Purse are amazed at Tom’s horticultural first.  Dr John Purse from Primabio in Faversham said, "what Tom has achieved here at The World Garden of Plants is amazing. To get the Silver Princess to flower  is wonderful. I’m very jealous!"

Tom and Dr John Purse looking at the flower.

As an eucalyptus breeder, Dr Purse has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the plant species. "Kew couldn’t manage to get the plant to flower, but Tom has – it’s a real achievement", he said.

Tom, an intrepid plant hunter, whose adventures led to a nine month incarceration in the jungles of South America at the hands of Colombian guerrillas in 2000, collected the seed for the Silver Princess from a garden in Melbourne, Australia four years ago.

Tom says of his Princess, "she’s a tender beauty  who's receiving some special treatment in the greenhouse at Lullingstone Castle." 

Tom puts part of his triumph down to his spade work. "I was a bit brutal when I transplanted her and  slashed at the tap root, I believe  this is the reason why she has flowered this year".

Tom intends to make this pioneering horticultural moment the first of many at his World Garden. "The whole idea of the World Garden  is to prove that it is possible to grow exotic species here in a garden in North West Kent."