Otto Brandmuller was born in Germany and trained as a horticulturist.  As a young man he was drafted into the Prussian Army.  When he left the army he decided to travel to South Africa with his stepbrother.  He arrived in Cape Town in 1980.  For the first two years, he and his stepbrother traveled all over South Africa capturing wild animals and shipping them to zoos in Europe.  In 1983 he was appointed forester at Maccauvlei in the Free State, along the banks of the Vaal River.  He became famous as one of South Africa’s leading horticulturists.   He planted the Maccauvlei forest of over 4 million trees, and on his own initiative, he started to beautify the banks of the Vaal River in the Vereeniging area.  At Maccauvlei he planted about 28,000 apple trees.  The apples were exported to Covent Garden, London.  By 1905 the Vaal River banks were completely changed and the forest had become a haven for wildlife.  Not all the attempts to introduce wildlife were successful though.  200 pheasants specially shipped from England were wiped out by the indigenous wildcats in a very short time.  Brandmuller had better success with his introduction of fallow deer.  Starting with just two does and one buck the herd grew to over 300 in number.  A street near Vosloo Park in Three Rivers, Vereeniging is named after Otto Brandmuller.

On retirement in 1936 he bought a 440 hectare farm called “Varkensfontein”, named after the indigenous Arum lilies that grew in abundance and look like the ears of pigs.  The farm, situated on the border of Walker’s Fruit Farms, De Deur is now known as Arboretum (Latin for trees), because in his lifetime, he planted over 6 million trees and established a wholesale nursery that specializes in trees and now caters for both the retail as well as the wholesale market.

Otto passed away at the age of 92 and was survived by his wife Mary and four children, Ernest, Dorothy, Elsie and Harold.  Harold, who was born deaf, left school at the age of sixteen to work on the farm with his father and sister, Elsie.  He was responsible for all plant production and was very dedicated to his work.  Harold passed away in October 2002 at the age of 82 years.  His daughter Karen joined the business at the age of eighteen and his grandson Darryl has shown interest in continuing the nursery business together with Karen.  In February 1996 Karen converted the old milk room and meal storeroom into a modern Bed and Breakfast facility.  In 1998 another area was converted into a bush camp that accommodates 30 people.

The camp is named “Thabeng” from the Sotho word thaba which means mountain.  The Thabeng Bush Camp is situated in a scenic area of the farm overlooking the Suikerbosrand.  In April 2001 three walking trails were developed through various types of habitat – grassland, thorn-bush and forestland.

Karen and Darryl are still following in Otto’s footsteps and invite you to experience the Arboretum Nursery.  www.arboretum.co.za