NELLMAPUIS SPECIALIST: HORTICULTURIST AND FARM MANAGER J. FUCHS KNOWN AS HANS

Another of these specialists was his first horticulturist Richard Wills Adlam, the “curator of the Pietermaritzburg Botanical Gardens in 1889” His successor was the German born J. Fuchs , or ‘Hans’ as he was known on the farm. He “was both horticulturist and farm manager until 1895. Fuchs was responsible for the design and landscaping of the gardens. “He built two arched glass-houses [which], by their design, fit snugly and artistically under the canopy of great trees” Fuchs was responsible for the landscaping and design of the gardens, with their “sweeping lawns, shady avenues and brightly coloured flower beds”, and created a retreat for the Nellmapius family where they could escape from the troubles of the business world. This was what the Irene Estate was famous for, and not as a grazing farm: “Irene was known to the public as an extensive flower, vegetable, and fruit garden, and for the perfection of its amenities, twenty thousand fruit trees and a hundred thousand forest-trees having been planted”