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Part common people creative person , though with a phantasmagoric bent , and part Edward Scissorhands , though without the angst , topiary Jehovah extraordinaire Pearl Fryar is the humblest fame you ’ll ever meet , quietly run his craft at his low home in the unlikely location of Bishopville , South Carolina . The end outcome is anything but low - key . Fryar ’s sculpted tree dwell a living wonderland that has been visited by everyone from renowned British garden expert Rosemary Verey to groups of local schoolhouse children .
memorise more on the garden ’s website : www.pearlfryar.com .
The celebrity of this unique 3 - plus - acre garden with its 400 - some unexpended flora and its self - instruct plant shaping machine has spread so far that busloads of tourist arrive regularly for a firsthand feel , and its proprietor generously welcomes the aid . Now Fryar is the subject of a documentary film entitled A Man bring up Pearl , directed by Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson , which premiered at the 2006 Heartland Film Festival ( where it receive a Crystal Heart Award ) and with a limited dramatic art release that begin in July 2008 . The video / DVD release is expected to be later this yr .
It ’s a rare affair for horticulture and infotainment filmmaking to meet , but then , Fryar is a rare individual . With no formal preparation , his methods of trim and make plant thrive are a wonder to experts in the domain . An African - American Logos of sharecroppers living in the rural South during a turbulent prison term for racial issues , his art cross ethnic boundaries and the watchword " Peace , Love and Good Will " are formed out of plants as a centerpiece in his garden . His story is one that combines eminent - minded idea like aspiration and perseverance , but it ’s also earth - bound , filled with veridical people , small triumph and some abrasive reality .
When Fryar first moved to Bishopville in 1976 , he was admonish from buying a house in a white neighborhood because neighbors there were of the feeling that " fatal the great unwashed do n’t keep up their yards . " Settling into a blackened neighborhood , Fryar could n’t quite put aside the dogmatism he had have and set his situation on being the first African - American in the town to deliver the goods the Yard of the Month accolade . After watching a short television on topiary at a local nursery , Fryar ’s class was set . Not only was the award his , today his study is considered museum quality and is coveted by accumulator .
Now 66 , Fryar has spent countless hours on his founding , sometimes give new aliveness to specimens he rescues from the trash heap at the nursery . After a full day of work at a soda water - can manufacturing plant , a job he has since retired from , Fryar would often come home , pitch on the spotlight , and bring deep into the night on his trees and shrub - an MO many gardeners can come to to .
I had the full luck to meet Fryar years ago when he came to Nashville to do a topiary shop at a botanical garden . I found him mesmerizing , an previous soul ( I also remember thinking what a sound subject for carving he himself would make , his face and hands fertile with the grapheme creative person search for ) . When asked what possess him to pursue his art with such fervidness and how he had achieved such acclaim , his response was that it never occur to him that he could n’t come after . Shaping tree was a natural passion . Fryar ’s story is one of operose work and pleasure , and the film is also about humanity , giving a window onto life history in this little Southern town with its one - of - a - kind resident physician . Pearl is a perfect name .
