Meet Alisha & Anson | Twisted Acres

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alisha & Anson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alisha & Anson, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
We started Twisted Acres in 2011. Anson is naturally an entrepreneur. Since he was young he was always scheming new businesses. I (Alisha) started working in Flower Shops when I was 13 years old and loved the small business way. Anson and I met years ago in the flower shops before we started dating as he was the plant guy. He had 12 acres of greenhouses. He grew and sold many variety of plants to Flower shops on the Southwest coast of Florida. Hurricane Charlie destroyed alot of what he had built and then add in a crashing economy around that same time and he had to close his doors to his plant business. The Flower shop I was working at around that same time also closed up. Anson and I both wanted to create our own business, so we decided to combine our talents. Anson is obsessed with plants. I love working with my hands and creating art. Anson had sold air plants on a small scale to the flower shops but decided they were the best option to rebuild his plant business. Air Plants didn’t need as much acreage to rebuild, add in no dirt, soil or pesticides and he was sold. I was selling my art on Etsy and we decided to combine our talents and Twisted Acres was born. We began online but then started to bring my art and the plants to cons, markets and local art shows. We have let the business organically grow over the years. We didn’t want to work for the business, but have the business work for us. After all we were doing what we loved and didn’t want that love to sour.
10 years later we have grown from that tiny online store to an acre and half within the city of Fort Myers. Here we have our greenhouses which is our head quarters we named Air Plant Emporium. A whimsical space filled with much more than just air plants. We just opened our location to the public this past October and are expanding on our location to pursue our dreams of a space filled with plants and art. You can follow us @TwistedAcresFL or @AirPlantEmporium on instagram or Facebook to see all the new happenings.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
The fact that Anson and I run one business in two ways has made this work. I mean lets be real we live and work together that is not always the best recipe. Anson came up with this idea years ago and together we started brainstorming and designing our business and our products. Anson and I both have skill sets we bring to this business that are different from each other, but compliment each other. We are both creative in our own ways. Even though we run Twisted Acres together we have our own parts of the business that we accel at and run separately but come together in the end. It works great and the reason we don’t have many disagreements about the business because we run our own parts that unite and form what Twisted Acres is. Rarely are we working on the same part of the business. We do help each other and support each other in our parts but he controls his area of the business and I control mine and it works. We didn’t plan this it just naturally happened and it we wouldn’t change it.

We are always scheming new designs, ideas and dreaming of what we want to do next. This has not been easy it’s been alot of hard work. Fortunately we love what we do so even in the hardest of times we still enjoy what we do and what we are building. I will say Florida summers are a bit brutal. When you run a plant business your outside alot. I’m not sure either one of us has gotten use to working outside in that Florida summer sun and heat.

We are excited about our recent expansion of our location. Last February we got the opportunity to expand into our neighbor property to get a full acre and half including a 3600 square foot building. I’m not sure we were at the point of needing the building but it was one of those moments that was a now or never time. So we decided it was our time now. Our dream has always been to have a location full of plants and art. We look forward to working within our community here in Fort Myers and eventually adding in local artists, crafters and small businesses. We hope to offer a place where small businesses and artists can come and take a chance and try out their dreams too. It is just in the beginning stages but we now have all the room to set our roots in and grow this dream. We are especially excited for what the future holds for Twisted Acres and our head quarters Air Plant Emporium

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Gosh that’s a hard one. Florida is a big state full of so many cool places. Locally by us in the Fort Myers area you gotta check out Sanibel Island of course. Our downtown here in the City of Fort Myers has made some beautiful changes and we have so many cool small art shops and galleries. Favorite gallery in downtown Fort Myers has to be Arts for Act. Its a wonderful gallery full of beautiful and fun local art and works toward a great cause as well. I love ice cream so when we are downtown I love to stop at Sidecar Treats for ice cream and popcorn. Of course when you’re heading to the downtown area stop at Twisted Acres head quarters Air Plant Emporium for a dash of whimsy and plants. Fort Myers really is a hidden gem although lately it’s being discovered more. Just down the street from us is the Edison Ford winter estates here which is a beautiful property and offers a tour into Thomas Edison and Henry Fords Fort Myers get away. Sanibel Island and Lakes park Farmers markets are our favorite. Little biased Twisted Acres sells at both these markets. But the food and goodies you can find at both these markets are awesome and the customers are always raving about how good those farmers markets are compared to others they have attended.
Near us is Pine Island. Drive onto Pine Island and when you hit all the colorfully painted buildings you are in Matlacha. A small whimsical island full of art and small businesses.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Etsy- Etsy allowed us to dip our toe in the water and start selling our plants and creations online. We started on Etsy and from there we also added in Art shows and local markets in the beginning. But Etsy gave us the opportunity take the chance without much risk at the time.

Local Roots- Local Roots runs farmers markets in our local area and we have been setting up with them for over 8 years. At these markets we have met people from all over the country and that helped give us great exposure.

Our awesome customers- We couldn’t do this without them. We maybe a little biased but we have the best customers and fans around. We have had some customers that have shopped with us for years. We get to see them every season at our local farmers markets and their support means the world to us. The fact that they love us and our business enough to stay loyal to Twisted Acres is just amazing. We have also met some great customers online who not only love our business but also love us and just send emails from time to time to just check in. We meet new customers every year and even get to meet those online customers when they visit our area which is a great tropical tourist spot.

Website: TwistedAcresOnline.com

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Facebook: TwistedAcresFL