He loves his plants, he loves his fishing, and he loves the joy he brings to children each year as Santa Claus.
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For a man who has packed a lot in to his 70-odd years, Tom Lantry puts this at the pinnacle.
Last week the Tenambit man was named Australia’s top horticulturalist at the annual Australian Institute of Horticulture dinner.
“It’s a great honour to be recognised by your peers like that, very humbling,” Mr Lantry said.
It’s a great honour to be recognised by your peers like that, very humbling
- Tom Lantry
The recipient must have made an outstanding contributions to the horticulture industry, including horticultural education or horticultural media.
It’s a long way from the day the trainee greenkeeper started work at Maitland Golf Club in 1967, eventually became head greenkeeper and who stayed at the club until 1976 before leaving to take on a job at TAFE as its first full time head of turf and horticulture.
Ironically, a flood a few years after he started at the Golf Club put him on the steepest of learning curves and he has never looked back.
“I got more experience there in a couple of years than most people would get in 20,” he explained.
“It flooded and half the course was under water and I had to rebuild the greens and get them back in play. I learnt so much from that.
“Then in the early 70s I was in charge of putting in a fully automatic watering system – and that was another great learning experience.”
He also managed to squeeze in a few years as a horticutural consultant and also ran a wholesale nursedry specialising in fuchsias before retiring.
These days he keep busy with his horticulture and loves passing on his knowledge to the younger generation – “they’re the future”.
Five years ago he formed a local branch of Hunter horticulturalists that meets every second month to exchange ideas and share information. He wants budding green thumbs people to know there is help out there.
His other great love is fishing and he’s president of Maitland Offshore Fising Club.
“Catching a good fish – a blackfish or maybe a bass – cooking them up fresh, having a beer or a wine and talking about your day, geez … it doesn’t get much better.”
Oh, and if thats not enough, for years now he has acted as Santa Claus at Green Hills.
“The kids mate, the joy that it brings them … it keeps you young, how could you not like that?”
