Lois Duffin Orchids

Lois Duffin Orchids in the News

Spring 2008

This photo of a MALT instructor was taken in our Cymbidium greenhouse.

June 7, 2008 - Jim and Lois Duffin to present "The World of Orchids" at the Mount Airy Learning Tree Course description: "Get acquainted with this exotic world-wide plant group. Get an up-close view of flowering orchids and cultural tips to maintain and bloom your orchids. We will then take an on-site trip to our greenhouses on Mermaid Lane and demonstrate repotting." The Mount Airy Learning Tree (MALT) is a community service organization based in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, PA. View course details Visit the Mount Airy Learning Tree website

November 2007

February 2004

Good health flowers for Mt. Airy former CEO Beauty rescues area’s largest orchid grower

by LEN LEAR

Mt. Airy resident Jim Duffin began working in 1966 for the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, a city-chartered non-profit corporation which has rehabilitated and sold more than 1,000 houses in the inner-city to low-income families. Federal subsidies have helped families purchase the homes for less than $25,000.

However, Duffin, now 75, insists that high-level jobs at the agency were “incredibly stressful.” In the mid-1970s the CEO of the non-profit corporation got into an angry confrontation with a man he had just fired. Minutes later, the 52-year-old CEO suffered a heart attack in the office and died right in front of his co-workers, including Jim.

Duffin was then elevated to the post of acting CEO. Two years later in 1981, however, Duffin, then 52, also had a very serious heart attack that nearly took his life, even though he was thin, had never smoked and had appeared to be in good health.

Jim then retired because of ill health and was unable to take a job for 10 years, although still only in his 50s. You might say, however, that Jim’s health was completely restored by the smallest, most beautiful therapists imaginable — the colorful orchids grown by his wife, Lois.

Mrs. Duffin, who grew up on a dairy farm in Bowling Green, Ohio, had been a stay-at-home mom, guitar teacher and director of the Guitar Mass at Holy Cross Church in Mt. Airy, where she has been a member for 36 years.

In 1980 Lois, who had always had lots of houseplants, purchased an orchid for $25. “Ten months later it flowered,” she said, “and I was completely hooked. The beauty is overwhelming. I had to get more of them. Orchid people are like that. There are so many kinds that you can never get them all.” (According to experts, there are more than 24,000 different orchid species and hundreds of thousands of hybrids.)

For 10 years, growing orchids became an increasingly time-consuming hobby for Lois as she continued to teach guitar and give classes and workshops at area churches on how to conduct a Guitar Mass. In 1990, however, Jim and Lois decided to make orchid growing a full-time occupation. They went to Bruce Robertson of Robertson’s in Chestnut Hill and began vsiting the homes of some of Robertson’s customers to care for their plants.

The Duffins also sold plants at the Philadelphia Flower Show for five years for Waldor Orchids of Linwood, New Jersey. The Mt. Airy couple grew more and more orchids on their own in spaces rented in New Jersey, Pottstown and elsewhere. In 1990 they rented greenhouses from Robertson’s in the firm’s huge growing facility at 1301 E. Mermaid Lane in Wyndmoor.

In the year 2000, the Duffins built two greenhouses of their own on land leased from Robertson’s in the sprawling Wyndmoor complex. It costs a small fortune just to keep the gigantic enclosures heated at the proper temperature, 24/7. “We have more than 10,000 plants here,” said Lois. “Some are in two-inch pots, and some are in two-gallon pots. Most orchids cost about $25, but there are some very rare ones than can cost hundreds of dollars.”

The Duffins also board plants belonging to others, including people from New York and Connecticut who occasionally come down to visit their plants. The Duffins work at the greenhouses seven days a week to care for the inhabitants, even when they are not in flower.   The plants all have to be watered once or twice a week, and the temperature, light, humidity and fertilizers all have to be monitored as well. Most of the plants are in flower once a year — some more often — for about one month or more.

For Jim, who some people say bears a striking facial resemblance to former President Richard Nixon (but Jim has never been impeached), the orchids have been a virtual fountain of youth. “Ever since I began working with orchids, my health has improved consistently,” said Jim. “My doctor even says they are a great stress-reducer. To be surrounded by such beauty every day is clearly good for the heart.

“Also, they give off pure oxygen, and many of them have such a fragrant aroma. When a new flower blooms, it’s always a thrill. I guess you could say I ‘pump orchids.’ These plants reward you without your even asking.”

Lois is now president of the Greater Philadelphia Orchid Society, which has about 100 members. They bring in speakers from all over the U.S. and the world to talk to the membership. Those experts who come from other countries stay at the Duffins’ home in Mt. Airy. For example, a doctor of botany from St. Petersburg, Russia, who frequently travels to Vietnam for his plants has stayed there as well as visitors from Brazil, New Zealand, Venezuela, Japan, the Himalayan Mountains in India, Ecuador, South Africa and Colombia. “The man from India bought a lot of food at the Chestnut Hill Farmers Market and made a very nice meal for us,” said Lois.

The Duffins are now the biggest commercial growers of orchids in the Philadelphia area. They sell plants to Robertson’s and other florists as well as garden shops and horticultural consultants. They also rent orchids on a monthly basis to clients who just love having them around, and they even rent some plants for parties. “There are some plants we don’t let out of our sight, though,” said Lois, “because they are too delicate or expensive.”

The Mt. Airyites even have hybrids registered with the proper authorities in their own names, such as the Cymbidium Jim Duffin. For the last 10 years they have exhibited at the New York Orchid Show and for the last 15 years at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Last year they won a trophy at the New York show for the “Best Phragmipedium” out of hundreds of entrants. Three times in recent years they won the “Best Orchid Display” award at the Philadelphia Flower Show. One year their names were listed second on a plaque of winners, right under that of Walter Annenberg. (But the Duffins have yet to have a university building named after them.)

Last week, from February 5 to 8, the Duffins and other growers exhibited their plants at the 21st annual Orchid Show and Sale, sponsored by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Orchid Society, on the first floor of the Court of King of Prussia Mall.