Honoring Judith Siporin

By Mary P. Chatfield

Judith Siporin started life at Commonwealth as a secretary, which is a little as if Gertrude Jekyll or Vita Sackville-West had started out sweeping the potting shed. For of all those who have pruned bushes and pulled weeds in the Walled Garden, Judith deserves the title of master gardener.

A master gardener needs four special qualities—courage, patience, imagination, and tenderness, and Judith has these in abundance. Courage enables one to be tough with a plant, pinch it off so that it may bloom more profusely, move it about so it makes a community with other plants, leave it be when it needs more time. Patience enables a gardener to allow the plant its nature, never forcing it to be other than the best it is of itself, waiting gently to guide it, stake it, support it. The imagination of a great gardener sees the future with clarity and joy. It is the imagination of such as Capability Brown, whose seedling trees, planted in the eighteenth century, make Stour Head such a magnificent place today. And finally, tenderness. How gentle Judith is and has been with all whom she has taught! Has she ever raised her voice? Has she ever failed to encourage? Has she ever offered other than her whole heart to her students?  Look about this evening at the produce of the Walled Garden. See how many of them are hers and look how they flourish!

Next: Honoring Walter Crump