Legacy of Love

On the lowry family farm in Hawke’s Bay, a 30m Mediterranean cypress towers majestically over the 4ha garden. It was planted 140 years ago by Mrs Thomas Lowry, 25 years after her husband emigrated from England and settled at Okawa, 30km south-west of Napier – just one of hundreds ordered from England by the Lowry family during their first century at Okawa. Records pencilled into Thomas Lowry’s 1860 letter-book show repeat orders from Australian and English nurseries of cypress, peach, nectarine, gum and oak trees.

 

These days the trees are taken care of by fourth-generation members of the Lowry family, Tom and Joannie, both passionate about preserving the Okawa garden for future generations.

 

 

Tom and Joannie were married in 2002 after both losing their spouses to long illnesses. When Tom’s first wife Jane became ill he dedicated his time to nursing her at home and managing the property. A gardener was hired to keep the beds and lawns around the homestead in order, but the remaining hectares were left to ramble.

 

A programme of garden rejuvenation began when Joannie joined Tom and they have worked tirelessly together. “For months on end I dumped piles of unwanted plants and weeds on the pathways and Tom would follow with his wheelbarrow, picking them up. He still does it, bless him,” says Joannie.

 

“It’s one of the perks Joannie gets for marrying a younger man,” quips Tom. He is 75 and Joannie 76.

 

It’s time well spent, insists Joannie. “We love working in the garden so much we get out as soon as the sun rises, especially in the warmer months.”

 

Over the last decade they have added a circular goldfish pond to the old rose garden, renovated the derelict hen house and resurrected the walk-in berry cage that, through spring and autumn, bursts with vegetables and berries. They rediscovered winding pathways and rambling vines were plucked or pruned.

 

An overgrown stretch of land between the hen house and creek was landscaped with hydrangeas and young flowering trees. A pair of giant copper dragonflies hovers over the park-like lawn that takes Tom six hours to mow on his ride-on.

 

 

It’s here, where the Mediterranean cypress stands between two 140-year-old chestnut trees, that Tom likes to share his stories about the property’s historic plantings and heirlooms with visitors.

 

Heirlooms such as the large wrought-iron gate erected by Tom’s great-grandfather in 1850 and flanked by the limestone wall Tom’s mother designed a hundred years later. Joannie also has her own smaller wrought-iron gate, inherited from her grandparents in Christchurch and placed further along the wall. “Tom put it up for me and he recently added stone columns on either side so it looks like it’s been there for decades.”

 

Decades is an apt term here as the family has owned the property for more than 15 of them now. “To celebrate the 150th year we all played a game of cricket on our homegrown cricket pitch,” says Tom. The pitch was built in the late 1800s by Tom’s grandfather and Tom’s father, Thomas Coleman Lowry, learned to play cricket there as a child before captaining New Zealand’s first test in 1930.

 

 

Okawa’s rambling homestead is of more recent vintage. It was built in 1951 to replace the old house damaged 20 years before in the 1931 Napier earthquake. Coincidentally, Christchurch architect Heathcote Helmore, Joannie’s uncle, happened to be staying with Tom’s parents when they lamented its parlous state and it was he who made the original drawings for the new house.

 

The Lowry family is also famous for breeding racehorses on their Okawa Stud farm, established by Tom’s grandfather. Access to the stables from the garden is across Okawa Creek on a swing bridge but, as Tom leased the stables out at the end of last century, his trips across the bridge these days are limited to visiting the two horses he keeps as a hobby.

 

In 1982 Jane Lowry had landscaper Chris Macpherson and stonemason Jack Pieters build terracing and stone steps with a columned entryway along the creek bank that forms part of the garden. She also placed five statuettes atop a stone wall running parallel to the creek, where they watch over guests meandering along the pathway under the avenue of trees. Visitors can also linger over the fancy-tailed goldfish in the new pond or soak up the beauty of ‘Crépuscule’, ‘Albéric Barbier’, ‘Compassion’ and ‘Rambling Rector’ roses and the white clematis weaving from mid November to late February through twisty steel pergolas.

 

 

A snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis ‘Viridapicis’, that Joannie introduced to Okawa on her arrival pops its white and lime green heads up in late winter at the base of several of Okawa’s deciduous trees, joined by narcissus, violets, hyacinths and jonquils a few weeks later.

 

In the shade of a towering tree is a hen house, named Cluckingham Palace (Tom’s brainwave). It is home to three Red Shaver hens, Princesses Anne, Margaret and Elizabeth, who strut around the property, keeping a beady eye out for Maggie the cat and Beazie the fox terrier.

 

Tom and Joannie’s daily dedication to the garden is rewarded by the enthusiasm of groups as big as 60 who arrive at Okawa by the busload every summer. Some come via the many cruise ships that call into nearby Napier and others arrive from garden clubs around the country.

 

“We love showing visitors around. They always leave us smiling and that’s how we like it,” says Tom.