Thomas Neillans
Scottish head gardener who grew peaches, nectarines and sweet peas in the Peeblesshire hills
THOMAS NEILLANS, who has died aged 91, was one of the great Scottish head gardeners of the old school and worked for many years at Glen, Lord Glenconner’s estate near Peebles, and later at Penshurst Place, Kent, home of Viscount De L’Isle.
He was born of farming stock at Nunraw, East Lothian, on April 15 1925. Educated locally at Garvald, he left at the age of 14 to work in a nearby nursery garden. There he learnt many of the techniques he was to use for the rest of his working life, and became a skilled propagator with the ability to “put roots on a telegraph pole”.
After a spell at Whittinghame House, East Lothian, once the home of the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, and at Carolside House, near Earlston, in 1952 he moved as head gardener to Glen. There – where visitors ranged from Princess Margaret to Philip Toynbee, Cyril Connolly and VS Naipaul – Neillans turned the garden into a showpiece of all that is best in Scottish gardening.
The Victorian terraces, with their topiary, herbaceous borders and formal beds planted with pansy “Pickering Blue”, were immaculate. The greenhouses provided peaches, nectarines and apricots as well as sweet peas and roses, grown under glass to protect them from the harsh climate, 700ft up in the Peeblesshire hills.
The big house was filled with flowers all year round. Rhododendron Fragrantissimum grown in huge pots, was a favourite in spring, while giant specimens of Lilium auratum scented the rooms in summer.
The kitchen garden supplied vegetables of an equally high standard. The Glen strawberries, of the delicious old variety “Royal Sovereign”, were famous and Neillans also grew a strain of fraises des bois brought back from France by Lady Glenconner.
In 1984 Neillans moved south to Penshurst Place, Kent, the historic home of Viscount De L’Isle, who had spotted Neillans’s talent from afar. There, his skills were appreciated by the thousands of people who visited the gardens every year. Lord De L’Isle and his family, owners of Penshurst since the 16th century, forged a deep friendship with Neillans and his wife.
Neillans’s talents as a teacher also blossomed in the great gardens of Penshurst. “We have had to work twice as hard since Tommy arrived,” said one of the under-gardeners. “But I enjoy it – the work is more than twice as interesting now.”
In 1994 Neillans took on an advisory role at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland. There, Sir Humphry Wakefield, who had already undertaken an extraordinary restoration of the castle, was creating what is now a glorious garden. Neillans solved manifold problems with his combination of friendly tact and quiet authority derived from a lifetime of practical experience.
A handsome man, he looked decades younger than his years and was always immaculately turned out in tweed coat, collar and tie.
He was only once seen in an open-neck shirt; he was digging hard on the hottest day of the hottest year for a decade.
Wherever he lived, Neillans played a key part in local life. At Penshurst he was a governor of the local school. A man of deep faith, he served as Session Clerk at Traquair Kirk for the Reverend Harry Dodd for many years and later filled the same role for Mr Dodd’s daughter, the Reverend Marion Dodd, in Kelso.
Whether judging at flower shows, selecting roses for breeding, or organising lectures for the Probus Club, Neillans was always sought after for help and advice, freely and cheerfully given. He was an International Rose Society judge and was awarded the Silver Rose Award for his work with roses.
Neillans left a lasting legacy in the great gardens where he worked, and in the young gardeners he trained. Since the 18th century when Catherine the Great employed Scottish gardeners, they have had a hard-won and richly deserved reputation as the best in the world, a tradition to which Tommy Neillans belonged.
In 1949 he married Nancy Dalgliesh. It was a long and happy union and they brought up their son and daughter at Glen. She predeceased him and he is survived by their children.