21/01/2021
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Pauline Trengrove, in her 90th year on Friday January 1st 2021.
An artist and a gardener, Pauline purchased Ohinetahi in the late 1970s together with her husband John and her brother Sir Miles Warren. When first purchased, the house was in complete disrepair and the garden consisted only of a few specimen trees, a few small plum trees and a lawn.
The three designed the layout of the garden, with Pauline bringing the garden to life while John and Miles were at work. Over the next 15 years, she was the plantswoman and insisted that some of the plum trees remain, and a few are still here today. The herbaceous border was one of her favourites, a challenge each year to plant and nurture the annuals that would create a magnificent display each spring and summer, to be all cut back in the winter. Her vision and passion turned Ohinetahi into a garden of international significance.
Today, the internationally recognised garden has exponentially expanded with the purchase of the field from the adjoining property, blossoming with an array of native plantings and trees as well as the installation of new gardens, walkways, an amphitheatre and sculptures by renowned NZ artists.
By the mid 1990s with Ohinetahi well established, Pauline and John took on a fresh new challenge and bought a bare 10 acre paddock in Ohoka where they built a new house and spent the next 15 years building another internationally renowned and recognised garden – Cashel. This magnificent garden included long hedged straight and diagonal axes, herbaceous and native borders, a lake, a long canal and a mount. Pauline once again took on the backbreaking task of breaking in the land and planting the thousands of trees and plants in the property, while John was put in charge of tidying up the mounds of gardening rubbish, cutting hedges and the three days each week it took to mow the lawns. When John reached 80, Cashel was sold to private owners and the couple moved into central Christchurch.
Throughout her life, Pauline showed an indomitable style. She was often seen wearing her pearls and bright lipstick while donning her gumboots while she worked hard in the garden. She was a true visionary who expressed her creative talents in her artwork and in the land in which she nurtured and cared for so deeply. Not only did she create gardens with distinction, she also raised four children, gained her music letters and a fine arts degree in her adult years.
A truly remarkable woman.
