04/16/2026
Pearl Fryar
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.
“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.”
The immediate needs of the garden are being addressed now, but the future of the garden will be decided later on by its board of directors, longtime family friend Betty Scott said April 7.
‘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 P*e Dee. He dealt with an array of racial prejudices and discrimination at work and in Bishopville.
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.
In many ways, Fryar’s artistry mirrored his journey in life, Scott said.
“Living in a suburban area where he was,” she said, “this was something new to everyone, and they had to adjust. As time passed and his garden grew, they adapted and there was more acceptance. But (with) anything new that’s strange and unique and has never been tried before, you’re going to find opposition. The test of it is, can you overcome those oppositions? That’s what makes the difference.”
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.
“Pearl has traveled a unique journey,” Scott said, “a path that was designed especially for him. And with that choice he made, and with God in front of him, he has been such an amazing person for a lot of people, for a lot of reasons. Topiary is just one of the vessels he used in order to bring people together.”
Scott met the Fryar family as a child, and knew Pearl “before he cut his first tree.” The Fryars are her second family and have always been there for her, she said. “I was right there until he cut his last one,” Scott said.
“Pearl is a visionary,” she added. “Pearl has a huge heart, and people are drawn to him. He’s just like a magnet. He wants to see you grow, he wants to see you prosper, and that’s his vision, to share peace, love and goodwill, and he did that.”
As just one example, Scott referenced when Fryar created a scholarship fund for “C students” whose grades were not high enough to qualify for other scholarships “to keep them from falling through the cracks.”
“I enjoy meeting people,” Fryar said in 2017, “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.
‘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.”
