Nurseries discarded unwanted plants; Pearl Fryar rescued them and spent decades turning them into a three-acre sculpture garden
Pearl Fryar’s three‑acre topiary garden in Bishopville, South Carolina, began as a cleared cornfield littered with discarded nursery shrubs. With no formal horticultural training, Fryar rescued these unwanted plants and, over decades, coaxed them into living sculptures that now draw thousands of visitors.
A lifelong habit of trimming family hedges turned into a philosophy of "Love, Peace, and Goodwill." Fryar’s childhood experiments evolved into a bold, free‑form landscape where geometry and imagination meet foliage. The garden’s most iconic piece, the fishbone tree fashioned from a Leyland cypress, took seven years to perfect, and it sits alongside a square tree, birdhouse, mushroom‑shaped oaks and sailing‑ship junipers.
Beyond the arboreal art, Fryar scattered "junk art" fountains and metal installations bearing words such as "Hate Hurts" and "Peace." Even the driveway island spells out L‑O‑V‑E in trimmed shrubs, welcoming guests into a space that feels both playful and reverent.
Since Fryar’s passing in 2026, the nonprofit Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden has kept the site free to the public, maintaining more than 400 meticulously pruned plants and expanding with a Children’s Garden. Awards, grants from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts and the Andy Warhol Foundation, and community support attest to the lasting impact of a man who turned forgotten plant material into a living memorial of hope.