Charleston P&C: Bishopville SC topiary artist dies at 86
neillh...@earthlink.net
Pearl Fryar, iconic Bishopville topiary artist, dies at 86
- By Riley Edenbeck rede...@postandcourier.com
- Apr 6, 2026 Updated 3 hrs ago
Pearl Fryar in his element on May 21, 2011. The legendary topiary artist died Saturday, April 4, 2026.
Robert Behre
BISHOPVILLE — Pearl Fryar, a renowned topiary artist who gained broad recognition thanks to a 2006 documentary, has died at 86, according to the former artist-in-residence who oversaw the four-acre garden Fryar spent years cultivating.
Michael Gibson, the artist who took over the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden from his mentor from 2021 to 2022 as the artist-in-residence, announced Fryar’s death in a social media post on April 5. Within 24 hours, dozens of tributes from artists, South Carolinians and supporters of Fryar’s work were flooding social media. The artist died Saturday, April 4, Gibson said.
His unique vision has been showcased at the topiary garden, located in the outskirts of this small town, since 1981. He described his style as “free-flowing” and “abstract.”
The garden is managed by a South Carolina nonprofit whose mission is to preserve Fryar’s artistic and horticultural legacy and provide opportunities for artistic and educational enrichment.
The self-taught artist is known for his living sculptures, and at one point had nearly 10,000 people visit his home garden each year to marvel at more than 500 topiary creations.
Pearl Fryar and his topiary garden have helped Bishopville become a destination for visitors, including meeting on the street in front of Fryar's home Tuesday June 13, 2017.
File/Wade Spees/The Post and Courier Archive
“The last thing you see before you leave my garden is ‘Love, Peace + Goodwill,’” Fryar said in 2017. “So now, my garden not only appeals to the eye, but it appeals to you emotionally because you’re going to feel differently when you leave than when you came.”
‘A Man Named Pearl’
Fryar was the subject of the 2006 award-winning documentary, “A Man Named Pearl.”
He was a self-taught artist who has been featured in numerous national publications and TV shows, including The New York Times, “The Martha Stewart Show” and “CBS Sunday Morning.”
His inspiring messages were chosen despite, or perhaps because of, the hardships he faced in life.
Pearl Fryar is a self-taught topiary artist who designs beautiful creations for the public to view on his 3-acre garden in Bishopville.
He was the son of a sharecropper in Clinton, N.C., located between Fayetteville and Wilmington. The Fryar family “never had that much,” he said in a 2017 profile. He moved to New York and found a job at a bottling company, which eventually relocated him to the Pee Dee. He dealt with an array of racial prejudices and discrimination at work and in Bishopville.
Columbia art show pays homage to unseen works by late ceramicist known for Southern face jugs
He began maintaining his garden in response to rejection from White residents living inside the town limits of Bishopville, who worried about the possibility of a disorderly property in their midst.
His inspiration to create topiary art came from one nursery owner’s three-minute tutorial on how to prune a plant. That lesson led Fryar to “prune everything” and seek out his own signature style, he said in 2017.
“I enjoy meeting people,” Fryar said that year, “but I enjoy the message I get across to people through the garden. If you come out here and walk through the garden and I meet you, you’re going to think about things a little differently. My message also is to try to help someone less fortunate. That’s what it’s all about.”
After decades of growing fame, Fryar was force to slow down due to health challenges. Supporters rallied to restore it to its former glory, including the now-closed McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina, Atlantic Botanical Garden and The Garden Conservancy in New York.
In 2021, Mike Gibson, a topiary artists from Youngstown, Ohio, assumed responsibility as artist-in-residence for maintaining Fryar’s creations for a year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the current nonprofit was formed, replacing a former nonprofit that had dissolved in 2018.
Mike Gibson discusses topiary techniques in Pearl Fryar's Garden. Yaupon holly bushes adapt well to all types of pruning, making them a great plant for beginner topiary artists. Tony Bertauski/Provided
Tony Bertauski/Provided
‘He changed my life’
Gibson’s job was funded by a grant awarded by the Central Carolina Community Foundation. He first met Fryar in 2016, he said in a public tribute post on Sunday, April 5.
“He poured so much wisdom and tricks of the trade into me over (three hours),” Gibson said on Facebook. “He changed my life. I returned every year after that and gained more knowledge on the art of topiary.”
Gibson called Fryar “a true legend and national treasure” as well as his “mentor and idol.”
“His porch talks I will always cherish,” Gibson said in the post. “Stories about his time seeing bonsai while in the Army, or how he participated in protests during the civil rights era. Just talking about life. Such an inspiration. The man had a million stories and if you were lucky enough to hear them then I'm sure they blessed your soul too.”
“I'll continue what you started,” Gibson added. “Till next time.”