Mr. Green Thumb Hangs It Up, ‘Ready For Break’

With a bit of a grin and a twinge of guilt, one Spokane Valley horticultural guru is hanging up his green thumb.

Known far and wide for his unique plants and down-home service, Green Thumb Nursery and True Value Hardware owner Fay Johnstone will soon close his store at 16808 E. Sprague. He said he is trying to work out a deal to sell the store to someone who would reopen it.

“If I was 45 or 50 I’d hang in there. I’m 72,” Johnstone said. “I’m just getting a little too old to work this hard.”

In his fishing hat and muddy jeans, Johnstone still hovers around the front of his store shaking hands, directing folks to the best deals and tracking the traffic along Sprague Avenue as his liquidation continues. He will keep his store open until the merchandise is gone.

He laughs at the hordes of people in the store and folks who made the trip to the Valley just to wish him well.

“Yesterday a couple from St. Maries came in and introduced themselves. They always wanted to meet Mr. Green Thumb,” he said proudly. “I didn’t really realize there were so many people who relied on us so much.”

Business has dwindled a bit as the metal shelves empty out and his 11 greenhouses are picked clean of perennials.

The lull might startle many business owners. To Johnstone, it means he’s one day closer to challenging himself with left-handed tennis, spending more time with his wife and digging in a greenhouse of his own.

“I’m ready for a break,” he said.

That’s for sure, those who know him say. Johnstone has been a businessman on the go since he ran a sawmill with his brother at the age of 13. He’s run a business - in some form - at the East Sprague location since 1975.

And, now that retirement is upon him, Johnstone laughs at his success growing flowers, trees and vegetables - something he hadn’t anticipated.

“I never thought I’d be doing this,” said Johnstone. “It’s quite a ways from lumber.” Hard work has always been at the center of the Spokane native’s life.

After growing up working in mills, Johnstone worked for a building supplies company that moved him to Portland in 1955. That’s when his world changed.

“I hated the rain. It rained for 45 days straight,” he said of Portland’s weather. “I just wanted to get back to Spokane.”

He called a friend about a job. The friend implored Johnstone to start his own business.

He did and ran building supplies centers for 30 years until hard financial times caught up with him.

In 1986, another friend talked Johnstone into buying equipment to start a nursery. She quit just a few months after they started and Johnstone was stuck with the nursery and no knowledge of horticulture.

“I had all this stuff and I didn’t know anything about it,” he said. But Johnstone trudged on.

By 1992, he had bought the remainders of another Valley nursery, and another woman, well versed in the nursery business, joined him.

They focused on growing hard-to-find plants and business soared.

Johnstone’s many customers include Frenda Hess at Town and Country Auto, 808 N. Pines. The big hanging flower baskets there are still a favorite.

“We’ve sent so many people down to his place for those plants,” Hess said. “You can find them other places. But Fay did such a great job with them. He just has prepared them so well.”

While Johnstone settles in to retirement, he does want to see Green Thumb carry on - and that may just happen.

He wouldn’t speak of details, but Johnstone said that a local woman is planning to purchase the nursery.

“We have high hopes,” he said. “Maybe Green Thumb will continue.”

While it won’t be the same without the warmth of Johnstone, his customers hope that the purchase goes through.

“I’m real disappointed that he’s closing. The place was definitely named well because he really has a green thumb,” Hess said. “You just don’t find the help and courtesy at the big places. He would always give you more.”