Story by Sue Erwin, Photos by Marcy Shortuse, Christine Cunningham & Alisha Koyanis When artisans Anson and Alisha Koyanis realized they didn’t need soil to grow plants, they decided to turn the concept into a new business. Anson has more than 16 years of experience growing flowers in southwest Florida. For years, he supplied the former Boca Grande flower shop with most of their florae. He once owned 12-acres of land in Fort Myers where he would do most of the growing and producing. Alisha was working as a floral designer when she first crossed paths with Anson. “We actually met in a flower shop I was working at 12 years ago," she said. Then Hurricane Charlie hit in 2005 and it destroyed everything. It wiped the business out and Anson quickly realized he needed to do something creative to keep it going. "He grew a variety of different flowers and plants for years and then he focused on orchids for a while,” Alisha said. “Then he decided to focus on air plants because they do not require any dirt or soil or pesticides, so it was a cleaner way of producing plants." In 2011, they created a company called “Twisted Acres” air plants and since then, they’ve been travelling to farmer’s markets in the area to promote and sell their products. Alisha creates unique pieces of art from upcycled and recycled materials like shells and glass that they use to hold the plants. "I'm am artist at heart and I've been painting for years. I like to be creative and use items like barn wood and drift wood to incorporate into the plants," Alisha said. This was the first season Twisted Acres was a vendor at the Boca Grande Farmers Market. 76 GASPARILLA ISLAND July/August 2017 Anson and Alisha Koyanis sell air plants at various farmers markets and festivals throughout the area
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