Glen Ridge -- Westcott Garden

Dr. Cynthia Westcott earned the title "Plant Doctor" n 1932 after she learned few institutions hired women researchers, even ones like her with doctorates in plant pathology. Instead, wrote scholar R.K. Horst, Westcott conducted house calls like an old-fashioned doctor, helping prominent New Yorkers treat the diseases in their gardens. During World War II, the United States government asked Westcott to eradicate a fungus that decimated southern azaleas; she innovated a fungicide protocol in between lecturing on pest control in victory gardens. Although the nation knew her as a columnist for The New York Times and the author of The Plant Doctor and The Gardener's Bug Book, colleagues knew her as a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society and garden clubs knew her as a prominent lecturer. New Jerseyans remembered her annual Rose Days, when she opened her Glen Ridge home to anyone seeking advice or a rose arrangement. She showed early researchers when the Jackson and Perkins Company named a hybrid tea rose "Cynthia" in her honor.