'Plant nut' Tom Hart Dyke is set to lay ghosts to rest... when he returns to the country where guerrillas kidnapped and held him hostage as a young orchid hunter.

The TV presenter and renowned gardener admits he might have a "wobble" at the airport, as he relives the moment guerrillas kidnapped him and a plant-loving pal and held them hostage for months back in March 2000.

At the time the country was said to be the most murderous place on the planet.

Now he has been tempted back by the Colombian Ambassador... with the lure of more orchids!

Tom hit the headlines when he was kidnapped in Colombia in March 2000.

Almost 14 years on, he has decided to return to the country where he lived under the threat of death during a nine-month kidnap ordeal.

Going back to this part of South America was not on Tom’s radar until the Colombian Ambassador to the UK and Ireland, Mauricio Rodriguez, visited and, after some serious consideration, he decided it was time to bury the demons.

The ambassador had heard about Tom’s capture story in the jungle on the Panama-Colombia border while hunting for rare orchids with travelling companion friend Paul Winder.

The pair were taken hostage on March 16, 2000, while trekking through the Darien Gap, an area abandoned by all but warring guerrilla factions.

On June 16, the men were told to prepare to die.

Paul spent the afternoon in prayer, Tom spent his ‘final day’ designing a dream garden that contained plants he’d collected from across the globe.

Miraculously there was a change of heart and the pair were reprieved although not released until December 16 that year.

It was perhaps Tom’s jungle antics that made his captors glad to see the back of him.

“Building gardens in the mountains was much to the annoyance of our kidnappers,” said Tom. It also confirmed his reputation as a ‘plant nut’.

Tom said: “The ambassador has been reaching out to people affected by Colombia.

"He came to visit the World Garden and was amazed by what that been created since my release.

“It all came from the diary I kept. He was really moved.

“He invited me to the country’s literary festival at the end of January. He was so charming that I was tempted but I asked if I could think about it.

“He suggested I could do some talks and tell my story.

"I could also explore the north of the country including Medellin, a city where they hold the biggest orchid fairs.

"It has a wonderful temperate climate and so I caved in. I rang and said ‘why not’?”

Tom laughs, albeit nervously: “I hope I don’t recognise anybody. It is going to be quite scary going back.

"I see it as a therapy. I might wobble at the UK airport, let alone in South America, but I hope it will be a positive wobble.”

Tom, whose cousin is comedienne Miranda Hart, is in the process of creating a one-acre orchid meadow on a wet floodplain about 200 metres from the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle.

The work is well under way and the visitors should see the results by late spring.

He said: “I received a £6,000 grant to plant hundreds of orchids.

"There will be at least 50 species, all grown from seed by a UK nursery, including Bee Orchids, Marsh Helleborines, Lady Orchids & Southern Marsh Orchids - a cracking cross section.

"This will be the first native orchid meadow in the UK to showcase such a diverse range of absolutely stunning British species.

“I’ve started building a bridge and paths and in May, this class meadow should be in full of flower.

“I’m really excited and even Chris Packham’s interested, so maybe you will see it on Springwatch. Who knows?”

See Tom as he joins other gardening experts for a new BBC2 show, the Great British Garden Revival, which starts on Monday, December 9.