Growing up in rural Aiken County In a 1750s farmhouse, Augustus Jenkins “Jenks” Farmer III spent his days swimming in mudholes, running in fields, swinging on vines, traipsing through swamps and exploring a vast world of indigenous plants.
The men in his family tilled the land and reaped the harvest, and he spent a lot of time in the hayfields. Art met life as his grandfather painted still lifes of “whatever he pulled from the ground,” Farmer said.
Those experiences shaped his childhood and influenced his career choices.
The 10th generation South Carolinian wanted to escape from his homestead early on.
“The first time I ever got on an airplane, – a travel agent in Augusta helped me buy a ticket to the University of Zambia,” he said. ”I went halfway around the world the first time I ever went on a plane.”
He went to Zambia for an internship while a student at Clemson. After graduating from Clemson, he went to the University of Washington, where he got a master’s degree in Public Garden Management and Forestry.
While in Seattle, he got the call to curate the Riverbanks Zoo Botanical Gardens.
He’s been back in his hometown for three decades.
“Now, I love it, and I appreciate it,” he said.
He’s designed other botanical gardens. One of his most recent ones was at Pawleys Island, where he spent a couple of months earlier this year.
He’s also the author of multiple gardening books including his most recent one, “Secrets of Southern Gardening,” which he likens to his Horticulture 101 textbook minus the BS but with years of his experience folded in.
Farmer said it’s designed as a reference guide and handbook to allow people to find the answers to their gardening questions related to the Southern climate. It “unlocks the many hidden truths of gardening in this fickle region,” according to a news release.
“I’m super proud of it,” he said.
The well-traveled speaker, Farmer also offers lunch-and-learn sessions in Beech Island, often partnering with non-profits such as garden clubs. To learn more about upcoming events, sign up for his newsletter at his website here.
That family farm is now known as The Funky Little Flower Farm, where he grows and sells his “famous” crinums bulbs. One of his other books is about the genus which is part of the amaryllis family.
Farmer has officially named several varieties of the plant including the Regina Disco Lounge variety. A sign for the former Allendale County lounge where the flower was discovered hangs on one of the farm buildings.
He documented the flower and its differences. After a couple of years of conferring with colleagues, the plant was dubbed “Crinum Regina’s Disco Lounge.”
“Crinum Regina’s Disco Lounge is in the Royal Horticulture Society in London’s official book of plant names,” he said.
Farmer has researched crinums and believes early varieties may have been smuggled over with slaves from west Africa because of their spiritual or medicinal value. He’s spoken with other scholars who agree but as there are no written records and no one living who would know definitively, it’s speculation.
They were often found on rural Southern homesites and as families moved to the city and suburbs, they left the plants which continued to grow in the wild. Some varieties are most fragrant at night and are pollinated by moths.
Farmer said his family farm has one crinum that is about 80 years old. A photograph from the 1950s confirms its age.
Through his books and lectures, Farmer wants to help the next generation learn and care for the land and shape the gardens of the future. In addition to working with gardeners, he works with a group of interns each summer.
Some have gone on to careers in horticulture.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
