Charlie and the Christmas Factory

Sometime in the 1980s, when Charlie Lenger was a young and eager entrepreneur, running a company that leases and treats indoor plants, she set up a Christmas scene at the Longboat Key Club.

The tree was artificial, for safety reasons. But the attention to detail and wonder of the scene wowed the resort owners. Someone suggested Lenger make Christmas scenes an actual business, not just a one-off thing. Then a budding interior landscaper who had started her own business, Tropex, Lenger didn't hesitate.

“Like every entrepreneur,” she says, “I say yes to everything.”