Pearl Fryar's Topiary Garden
Just east of Columbia, South Carolina, off of I-20, in the small town of Bishopville, South Carolina is a very unique place. A whimsical, beautiful place. In the 1980's, Pearl Fryar watched a 3 minute video on creating topiaries, and the rest, as they say, is history.
From, as Mr. Pearl puts it, "just cutting up bushes", he has become an international celebrity. He has been featured in newspapers, magazines, tv shows and has even been the subject of a documentary called " A Man Called Pearl".
I had wanted to visit his garden for a long time. My sister-in-law and I set off to finally see it and we had no idea of the adventure to come. I might have, or might not have, gotten us a little lost by misreading the directions. When we finally arrived on an extremely humid day, Mr. Pearl was in his garden along with a journalist from National Geographic Television interviewing him. We were thrilled to be able to talk to Mr. Pearl and then the journalist asked to interview one of us. So my sister-in-law was interviewed for TV!!
The garden is internationally known. In fact, when we were visiting the other visitors were a couple from Poland. The garden is FREE and open from Tuesday through Saturday. Mr. Pearl is usually in his garden greeting visitors.
All the statues and fountains in the garden were created from recycled material ,or as Mr. Pearl says, "Junk".
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| My favorite part of the garden were definitely these "Dr. Seuss" trees. Aren't they cool? |
A very inspirational man, Pearl Fryar started giving scholarships to "C" students - those who think outside the box and are not followers, who might not be able to go to college otherwise.
If you are interested in visiting the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden you can get any info you need here - or you can donate toward his scholarships here also
I know, I know.... I say this alot. But if you have a chance to visit this garden, do it. You'll be glad you did!!
I have linked up with www.walkingontravels.com for #fridaypostcards!!!
Hi Jil, nice finding your blog through Friday Postcards. This place is amazing, just like the land of Edward Scissorhand!. What an incredible work. It great that you got to meet Mr. Pearl himself. Such an inspirational man indeed. I hope to visit his garden someday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting Marisol! I hope you make it to the garden someday - it's a bit out of the way for some but definitely worth the extra miles to visit.
DeleteVery cool. I've always liked topiary and dearly wish that I could do this to my own yard. I'm interested in seeing that TV show about Mr. Pearl (and your sister-in-law). I wonder if it was really difficult to figure out in the beginning or did he have some sort of plan.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't ask him that but I did ask him if her was out in the garden working every single day and he replied "yes, he is" and he said it was all from "cutting up bushes" Must be an incredible amount of work. The picture of the square bush with the round bush on top took several years to "train" and the Dr. Seuss trees and others were tied to "train". them.
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