Whether it was brightening someone's day by handing out a freshly clipped flower or surprising the taste buds with a snip of an herb, Eddie McPheeters says it's the interaction with customers he will miss the most.
After 56 years in business, Catalina Heights Nursery is selling off the last pyracanthas, arborvitaes, vines and assorted plants on the four-acre property at 6074 E. Pima St.
Once the inventory is cleared and the store is closed, McPheeters, 67, will semiretire and work with his son's boating business.
"It's tough to close up shop because it's all I've ever known," he said Monday. "It's time to turn in the keys."
It was at the age of 10 that McPheeters joined his parents, Ralph and Laila, in the nursery business.
Until 1958, people drove "all the way out" to the nursery, which offered live Christmas trees on its field until that year.
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"We were out in the sticks," McPheeters said of the property near Pima and Wilmot. "If a car drove down Pima every three hours that was a busy day."
In the beginning, Ralph McPheeters made extra money by growing onions between the well-spaced arborvitae pines and selling them to nearby markets and restaurants.
"We bought our first truck with the onion proceeds," Eddie McPheeters recalled.
After his father's death in January, he said it was time to wind down the business.
Three years ago, the family sold the land to developers who have plans for a residential development once the economy turns around, he said.
The last day of business will depend on how long it takes "to find all the plants a nice, new home," McPheeters said.
Longtime customers have requested that McPheeters continue to offer his Mac's Magic Mix plant food.
It can be ordered by calling 298-2822 or by e-mail, catalinahtsnurs@aol.com.
McPheeters said he might set up a wagon on his mother's front yard, next to the nursery, and sell the plant food from there when he's not working with his son, Eddie II, at his business, Eddie's Inboard Marine Equipment, 1131 N. Rook Ave.
Most of the nursery's inventory is on sale, and McPheeters figures it should be sold off by the end of summer.
His wife, Annette, expects the last day of business will be emotional. "The plants are so beautiful and so many wonderful people have come in throughout the years," she said. "It will be so hard to leave the employees. They've been so wonderful and dedicated."
The nursery employs nine workers.
Several "retirement sale" signs hang along the nursery's fences, and Eddie McPheeters said he will soon add a new sign that reads: "Thank you Tucson."
Did you know
Ralph and Laila McPheeters opened Catalina Heights Nursery in 1952 on one acre at its current location at 6074 E. Pima St.
Ralph McPheeters told a reporter in 1960 that he decided to move his family from Minnesota to Tucson after after working as a dining-car steward on a train that regularly passed through Tucson, and he was captivated by the area's beauty at midmorning.