In his career in horticulture, Jim worked in management positions with a garden seed company and a manufacturer of controlled-release fertilizers. He served seven years as executive secretary of All-America Selections, where his work took him to several foreign countries. He and his late wife, Jane, operated a commercial herb farm for seven years.

He is a prolific garden writer and lecturer, with a number of recent books to his credit: Landscaping with Wildflowers, Landscaping with Herbs, the South Carolina Gardener's Guide, Bulletproof Flowers for the South, Jim Wilson's Container Gardening, and Gardening through the Golden Years.

Jim is a South Carolina Certified Master Gardener and has been awarded Honorary Master Gardener in eight other states. He is a Fellow in the Garden Writers Association of America (GWAA) and in 1995, was installed in its Hall of Fame. He serves as national spokesperson for the GWAA's Plant a Row for the Hungry program, which delivers hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh produce to food banks and soup kitchens across the United States and Canada each year.

The year 2000 marked the release of the first plant named after Jim. It is a sweetbay magnolia cultivar named Magnolia virginiana MOONGLOW® ('Jim Wilson').

Jim and gardener Janie Lynn Mandel share an 1840s log cabin and garden on a 15-acre farm in Columbia, Missouri.

"This is Container Gardening™ with Jim Wilson" marks his first venture into the world of interactive gardening.