Jim Garner was a well respected horticulturist and lover of public gardens.
Most recently, he was executive director of Lockerly Arboretum, a 50-acre public garden in Milledgeville.
In the 1990s, Garner began pursuing a formal education in horticulture, earning degrees from the University of Georgia and Auburn University. Before that, he was a greenhouse operator and created and ran a 50-acre cut flower farm in South Georgia.
Garner had a passion for teaching horticulture as well. He was a professor at Horry-Georgetown Technical College in South Carolina for several years, where he helped develop the horticulture program.
“He was the kind of personality that people were drawn to him — to wanting knowledge from him,” said his wife Susan Hitchcock.
Even after he left Horry-Georgetown to become executive director at Lockerly, Garner used college students to help care for the grounds and write a weekly newsletter.
“He sort of revised Lockerly from a state almost to the point of extinction,” said Hitchcock. “It was just his vivacious and visionary and infectious personality.”
James Marshall Garner, of Eatonton, died July 6 after falling at his home. He was 63. H.M. Patterson and Son Spring Hill is in charge of arrangements. In lieu of a memorial service, family members ask that donations be made to Lockerly Arboretum, P.O. Box 310, Milledgeville, Ga. 31059.
Hitchcock described her husband as a Renaissance man, because he was interested in many subjects outside of horticulture.
Growing up in Atlanta, he went to rock concerts in the 1960s. Garner often talked about the Beatles changing his life, and he knew the lyrics to every song by his favorite artist, Bob Dylan.
He also was interested in historic preservation, and he and Hitchcock bought and restored an Antebellum house and its grounds in Eatonton.
“There was nothing here when we arrived except some old boxwoods,” said Hitchcock, adding that Garner loved creating something from nothing.
Garner even helped his friend of 40 years, Stan Waits, publish a novel. “I just consider Jimmy to be a genius,” Waits said. “A very, very smart fellow.”
Waits said his friend was fun-loving, loyal and compassionate.
“Jimmy added to my joy and to many others’ joy in life,” said Waits. “He was one of those people that you realize what a blessing it was to have Jimmy in your life.”
In addition to his wife Susan Hitchcock, of Eatonton, Jim Garner is survived by his son James Clayton (Clay) Garner of St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England; his sister Barbara Garner Andrews of Brunswick, and two grandchildren.
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