The profits from trade in both tobacco and slaves, allowed him to purchase Flenders Farm (land his family had worked for centuries) and establish the house.

[5] In 1961, it was bought by William P. Blyth who, with his wife, transformed the grounds from fruit and vegetable growing to the ornamental gardens that are seen today.

Then, in 1976, Mr and Mrs Blyth gifted the house, walled garden, and the 16-acre (65,000 m2) estate to the National Trust for Scotland.

These include spring bulbs, apple and cherry blossom, astilbe, aubretia, deutzia, dicentra, saxifrages, hydrangeas, primulas, dahlias, roses, philadelphus, azalea, rhododendron, lythrum, crocosmia, phlox, cosmos, echinops, sedum, lavatera, monarda, helenium and sweet william, as well as rodgersia pinnata superba, echevaria gibbiflora metallica and agrostemma.

The National Trust operates a tea-room next to the garden, where there is a substantial encyclopædia of plants, allowing visitors to identify specimens they do not recognise.