Submitted photo
From left, owners Taylor Gilkey and Mickey Hoffmaster, pose inside their new store, The Square Root Plant Company.

LEWISTOWN — Before Square Root Plant Company became a storefront on Monument Square, before plants filled the windows and customers walked through the door, it began with a conversation between two coworkers who discovered they wanted the same thing.

Mickey Hoffmaster and Taylor Gilkey worked together for about five years. They were good colleagues first. Then they started talking about plants.

Something moved from casual talk to possibility.

“It started with a conversation,” Hoffmaster said. “My business partner, Taylor, and I had worked together for about five years, good colleagues. Then one day, we got to talking about plants, and something clicked. About a month later, we had an LLC.”

That was the start of Square Root Plant Company, a neighborhood plant shop at 3 W. Monument Square, Suite 101, in downtown Lewistown. The shop carries houseplants, tropicals, grow lights, soil mixes, and supplies for people who know the difference between a philodendron and a pothos, as well as people who know they’ve killed a few plants and would like to stop doing that.

Hoffmaster and Gilkey didn’t build the shop from a corporate plan or a franchise model. It came from a shared interest that turned serious fast.

“We both realized in that stretch how much we loved this and that it was a shared dream that we just had to take a chance on,” Hoffmaster said. “That’s the whole origin story, and we still kind of marvel at it.”

For Square Root, the bet is that downtown Lewistown has room for a shop that asks people to slow down, look around and take home something living.

The shop serves beginners and collectors. Hoffmaster said Square Root carries “a little bit of everything,” including everyday favorites for beginners and harder-to-find tropicals for collectors.

“If we had to name our specialty, it’s the rarer plants,” Hoffmaster said.

That gives customers two ways in. One customer may walk in wanting a first plant for an apartment, office, or kitchen window. Another may come looking for a tropical plant that sends collectors searching beyond the usual shelves at a big-box store.

Square Root also sells what Hoffmaster calls the things that keep plants thriving. That includes grow lights, soil mixes made for tropical plants, and tools for people who want to keep a plant alive after the first week of excitement wears off.

The shop offers a repotting service for plants that have outgrown their pots or need care. The service can turn a plant shop into a regular stop instead of a one-time purchase. A customer who buys a plant in June may return in August with questions about yellow leaves, weak growth, or roots pushing against a pot.

Hoffmaster and Gilkey want Square Root to be a place where people learn before they leave with a plant. Workshops will help do that. The shop has planned events such as the Little Sprouts Club, where children pot baby spider plants, and a Moss Pole Workshop for adults.

“Workshops are a big part of what we want the shop to be, a place to learn, not just buy,” Hoffmaster said.

The workshops won’t follow a fixed monthly schedule, Hoffmaster said. Instead, the shop plans to offer seasonal workshops, pop-ups, and special events throughout the year.

“We’re keeping them as seasonal and pop-ups and special events rather than a fixed monthly schedule, so we can do them right when the timing’s good,” Hoffmaster said.

The goal is practical. A plant can intimidate people. Some customers arrive carrying the memory of every houseplant they’ve lost. Hoffmaster wants to move them past that.

“Mostly, we want to take the intimidation out of plant care,” Hoffmaster said. “So many people think they have a ‘black thumb’ when really they were just never shown the basics, and we love being the ones to show them.”

Square Root sells plants and gives customers a chance to try again with someone close enough to answer questions.

The shop also wants to give other local creators space. Hoffmaster said Square Root has set aside its bay window for a local artist to display work for a month at a time.

“Supporting other makers in the community matters to us, and we’re excited to give local artwork a real home in the shop,” Hoffmaster said.

That decision fits the location. Monument Square has long been one of the most visible places in Lewistown. When a business opens there, it becomes part of downtown’s daily view. People pass it on their way to errands or lunch. A window display can make a passerby pause. A plant in the window can soften a block.

Hoffmaster said foot traffic has been steady since the shop opened.

“Pretty consistent, which we’re grateful for,” she said. “It’s been a nice mix: people curious to come check the place out, and serious collectors. We’ve even got some regulars already. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming, and that’s meant a lot in these early weeks.”

Regulars matter in a small shop. Curiosity opens the door. Repeat customers keep a business alive. The early weeks after a ribbon-cutting can be encouraging. The harder work comes after the first wave of congratulations has passed and a new business has to become part of people’s routines.

For Square Root, that means giving customers reasons to return. A new plant. A workshop. A repotting service. A local artist in the window. A question about light or soil.

It also means giving people another reason to come downtown.

Hoffmaster said downtown Lewistown needs small businesses that make people want to spend time there.

“Reasons for people to come, stay, and linger,” she said. “Downtown thrives when there are destinations, places worth spending an afternoon, not just running an errand. When small businesses give people a reason to be here, it lifts everyone around us. We love seeing the square feel more alive and connected, and we’re glad to be part of that.”

That may be the larger story behind a small plant shop. Square Root opened at a time when downtowns are trying to pull people back from online shopping and highway retail. A downtown cannot live on traffic alone. It needs doors people want to open.

A plant shop may seem like a modest answer to a bigger question. Downtowns often come back in small ways first. One filled window. One workshop. One customer tells a friend. One Saturday when someone comes downtown for a plant and stays for lunch nearby.

Square Root’s early surprise has been how many plant people were already out there.

“The sheer variety of people who walk through the door,” Hoffmaster said. “We’ve learned that plant people aren’t always loud about their hobby. You’d never guess how many are out there until they come in and start talking. The shop has turned into a place where they finally find each other, and that’s been a wonderful surprise.”

That gives Square Root a different role. It can be a store and a meeting point for people who thought their hobby was private until someone else started talking about roots and light.

Hoffmaster and Gilkey are still in the early stretch, the period when every new customer matters and every return visit tells them something. They have plants to sell and workshops to plan, with a downtown square outside the door.

They also have the question every startup has after the excitement of opening settles.

Will people keep coming?

For now, Hoffmaster said the welcome has been warm.

“Just a big thank you to the community for the warm welcome,” she said. “Whether you’re a total beginner or a seasoned collector, we’d love to help you find your next plant, so come say hi.”

The Square Root Plant Shop is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. They are closed Sunday and Monday.