Quite a while ago I saw the video A Man Named Pearl.
A Man Named Pearl tells the inspiring story of self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar. It offers a message that speaks to respect for both self and others, and shows what one person can achieve when he allows himself to share the full expression of his humanity.
The garden was on NPR, too. Gardener Prunes A Topiary Paradise, NPR October 31, 2009
I was looking for a more interesting route back from Hilton Head Island and came across Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden. It wasn’t really on our way home, but now I really wanted to go and my husband is really easy going.
The GPS took us right there and the road is marked.
There is topiary on the other side of the entrance to Broad Acres Road.
It’s not difficult to tell this is the house.
The house number is a topiary. (I found out the answer to why there are two different addresses. They changed the address and he had already spent so much time on 165, he left it there.)
There is a large parking area.
It looks like the white bridge kinda marks the entrance.
That’s where the sign is. It has a different number. I don’t know, maybe the address changed? (I found out the answer, I guessed right. It’s the same reason my mailbox has two numbers on it.)
There are creative cement walkways and borders.
The bridge goes to a mosaic path to a kiosk with rack cards and information.
On the left is a small donation box.
Next is this really cool topiary area. My husband says it is a dragon.
Another view of the same bushes.
Same bushes.
See the cement mosiac border?
There are metal sculptures, too.
This is the back yard. There are all kinds of plants that have been shaped, boxwood, yew, holly, fir, dogwood and pine trees.
More metal art marking the path to more behind the house. The rack card calls them “junk art.”
There is a bathroom. I didn’t see inside, because we had just been to McDonalds.
Here’s a bottle tree.
And here is more, metal sculpture, the cement mosaic border and the shaped bushes.
These are three trees that grow together at the top over a basin.
Cement mosaic bordering more shaped bushes and metal art in the center.
Well wow!
This is the view I remember from the movie.
This is the part by the road on the part of the land across from parking. All together there are three acres of garden.
Here is the same entrance from the other side.
There is writing. I could figure out LOVE and PEACE. These words can be read from the air. The garden is not far from Lee County Airport Butters Field. We saw little airplanes taking off and landing.
When we got home I looked at Google Terrain view to see what the planes see.
I think this is a fish?
More metal sculpture.
The trees are shaped like something from Dr Seuss.
These trees are really tall. There is a line of them bordering the property.
Can you see how the trees link from one to another?
Here’s another view. Like they are holding hands.
The neighbors have topiary, too.
So go ahead and walk down the road to see them.
They each have their own style.
More topiary.
There is even this shaped tree at the end of the road.
We took even more photos, but they start kinda looking a lot alike.
Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden is in Bishopville, NC. The GPS took us straight up 95 and then on a bunch of turns on side roads. Here’s a tip. If you are taking this route there are no gas stations or fast food at the exit or anywhere else until you get there, so use the rest area.
Bishopville is right off I20, which took us right to I26 and home to Hendersonville, NC.
Yesterday NPR talked about the garden. I couldn’t find it on the NPR website, but I found this;
Renowned topiary garden makes a comeback with help from UofSC
Mike Gibson is the topiary artist-in-residence for the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina.
How did Gibson, a landscaper and topiary artist from Ohio, end up renovating a garden in rural South Carolina on behalf of a museum at the state’s flagship university?
It talks about maintaining the garden now.
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