November 01, 2007 |
Tipperary, Cameron & Niven Peach Clivia by Jim Black
The following article concerns some fine Peach Clivia plants- Tipperary Peach, Cameron's Peach and Niven's Peach. Cameron McOnie was a plant pathologist with a PhD from UC Davis, who worked at the Nelspruit Citrus & Sub-tropical Research Station (300 km east of Pretoria). James Abel was an agronomist and met Cameron there in 1965. James and Connie Abel moved to Pretoria some 32 years ago (around 1975) and by coincidence were neighbors of Cameron and Di's and their children attended the same schools - Cameron was then CEO of the S.A. Citrus industry export operation.The families became close friends and the Abels stayed with the McOnies several times at Tipperary. Cameron McOnie grew up in Barberton, about 35 km South of Nelspruit. Mike Christie was an old friend of Cameron's and a businessman in Nelspruit. Together as partners they developed Tipperary Subtropical Nursery from the mid 1970's, with Cameron taking care of the horticultural aspects of the business. Cameron told the Abels that the parent seed for the Tipperary strain came from Belgium and Spain and early photographs taken by the Abels show some of the first Peaches at Tipperary: 1. (Click Here) Di and Connie in the parent stock shade house - peach bottom left. 2. (Click Here) Composite showing peaches at left and Cameron top right. 3. (Click Here) A patch of clivias which attests to the ideal Lowveld climate - the trees are wild strangler figs, showing two nice examples of how they slowly dominate the trees on which they are growing. The Peaches showed up when the first seedlings from the imported seed flowered. In the mid 1990's Tipperary was sold to Rory Niven. Mike Christie then moved to Groen Rivier Estates twenty kilometers from Malmesbury in the W. Cape. Mike Christie then had some of the plants sent to him there, where he worked with his share of the Tipperary clivias. Rory Niven later moved to Australia and Tipperary was again sold. Mike noticed the "first" Cameron Peach in the clivia beds, moved it to the hot house and later named it in honor of Cameron McOnie. Seed from this plant produced a large percentage of peach flowering plants which were then called Cameron Peaches and used as the mother stock of the strain. What became of the original mother plant is unknown to me. We know from published articles by Mike Christie that Cheryl Apricot is a named plant out of the Cameron Peach strain. In 2005 Mike Christie began selling off his collection. He passed away in about 2006. Until more information from others sources come to light it appears to me that, as with Cameron Peach, Nivens Peach should also be looked upon as a strain from the Tipperary Peach lines. This article is no more than attempt to piece together the history of these peaches for those that have them in their collections, as I myself have. Should anyone have further contributions to this lines history, please e-mail me at the Contact Us link at the top or bottom of each page. References: 1. James & Connie Abel - James kindly supplied me the general background on Cameron McOnie contained in the first paragraph, with general dates, places and names and is in no way responsible for any errors in content, or mistakes made by the author.
3. My memory from numerous sources and therefore some errors or conflicts in content may exist.
©2003 American Clivia Society |
