Dig This

In Memoriam

The St. Louis gardening community lost an incomparable plantsperson, educator and kind human being in June Hutson, who passed away on July 11. She was the recently retired curator of the gardens at the Missouri

Home Gardening, a position she had held nearly since the Kemper Center’s inception over 20 years ago. June started working as a volunteer intern in the Climatron at Missouri Botanical Garden in 1974, and was part of a team that renovated the Climatron shortly thereafter. Her dedication soon earned her a paid part-time position, during a period when she was also taking classes in Horticulture at St. Louis Community Colleges at Meramec. After working on another renovation project at the Garden’s Mediterranean house, she took charge of the Kemper Center gardens. June was not only an exceptional plantsperson, she was a dedicated educator, both in formal classrooms and oneon-one discussions with other gardeners. “She was an amazing storyteller and educator,” said Master Gardener coordinator Holly Records. “She would stand in front of the master gardener training classes and talk from memory for hours about perennials and annuals. Her classes were the highlight of that program.” “She shared openly and willingly, visiting other people’s gardens,” her son David Hutson told former St. Louis Post-Dispatch Gardening Editor Becky Homan for a Post-Dispatch obituary. “She just shared in their delight.” June traveled the country visiting garden centers, often with the other “five amigos”, Chip Tynan, retired horticulturist from MBG, and his wife Suze, and Chris and Bill Kelley, former owners of Cottage Garden in Piasa, Illinois. She was familiar with plants none of the rest of them knew, Chip told Becky Homan, and would “give tips on whether it would survive in St. Louis. The depth of her knowledge, I can’t emphasize that enough. It was just awesome.” June retired from the garden in 2017, with the plan of renovating the wildflower garden at her home, once the garden and home of Edgar Denison, author of Missouri Wildflowers. She also remained active with the Master Gardener training program as well as volunteering in the gardens at MBG, and was also active with the St. Louis Herb Society and Kirkwood’s 50 Trees Program in her community. She is survived by her son and two grandsons, Nathan and Jacob. (Please see a personal remembrance in the Editor’s Letter on page 3.)

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