PALM HARBOR, Fla. — A landscaping company in Palm Harbor is running a small boutique in its backyard where local artists can host workshops for the community.

What You Need To Know

  • Earthscapes Garden Room in Palm Harbor has a boutique in its backyard called Fancy Plants

  • The boutique, along with providing people plants to purchase, holds regular workshops with local artists in the Tampa Bay area

  • Despite numerous businesses struggling during and after the pandemic, the founder of Fancy Plants says the boutique, along with Earthscapes, has been able to thrive under the conditions that began four years ago

The boutique is called Fancy Plants, and it gives a platform for those artists, while also selling exotic plants in a creative setting.

It’s amazing to think what can happen with a bit of copper wiring, if you have the vision.

For decades, Elizabeth Mason has had that creativity.

“I’ve been actually creating jewelry for about 20 years and teaching classes for the best part of 10 years now,” Mason, owner of EJM Designs, said.

For Mason, it can be more than just jewelry.

It can be art for her, or for the people who take her classes.

“It’s amazing to me that they started with the same template and end up with something completely different that’s uniquely yours,” Mason said.

That’s the best outcome for EJM Designs.

While she used to have a store in Dunedin, she now works from home and goes around the Bay area teaching classes in making some eclectic jewelry.

She’s been all over but very few places, she says, compared to the place she’s teaching the class in Palm Harbor.

“It’s just a beautiful, beautiful setting,” Mason said. “Just fabulous surroundings surrounded by the plants and the people, and it’s just a gorgeous, shaded porch, too. So, it’s comfy and very pleasant working.”

Mason’s class is on the porch of Fancy Plants.

“We like to make it an experience here. It’s much more than just a boutique,” said Terra Schmidt, the chief operating officer of Earthscapes Garden Room and founder of Fancy Plants.

According to Schmidt, when this space in the backyard of Earthscapes Garden Room opened up, the owner asked her to come up with something to put here.

So, she came up with a sort of “Do It Yourself” boutique.

“You come in with the mindset that you’re going to like, the mindset that you’re going to create something,” Schmidt said. “You know, it’s not just, ‘Come in and buy a plant and go.’”

People pick the pots, the plants and the accessories that come with it.

Schmidt says this business, as well as the landscaping side of things, has — pardon the pun — “grown.”

Part of that growth is adding workshops, like the one Mason is leading on the porch.

It brings in additional income for the boutique and gives local artists a chance to make money and showcase their work.

Most weekends, Fancy Plants has customers coming inside to find their precious potted plant, while folks on the outside are learning new artistic techniques from someone in their neighborhood.

Ultimately, planting a sense of community.