Goodwin Orchids officially began in 1969 by John M. Goodwin. He built his family's home and later the orchid business on the land his father had bought in 1919 located in Leesburg, Florida. What began as an orange grove and later fertile land for vegetables became the perfect growing area for orchids. Working full-time as a State Road Engineer during the 1960s, Mr. Goodwin managed the citrus grove after hours. He also enjoyed toiling with his roses planted where they could be seen from the road.

One day someone dropped by and wanted to trade some plants for the roses...those plants were orchids. That began the passion so many know when it comes to growing these exotic beautiful plants. Within ten years, that beginning collection had grown to something that was certainly commercial in size. Thus, the beginning of Goodwin Orchids! 

During the 1970s, Mr. Goodwin dabbled in many species, but was especially attracted to the vandaceous after world-renowned Thai grower, Professor Rapee Sagarik, visited the nursery and traded some of Mr. Goodwin's plants with some that were rare and hard to obtain in the United States. This began a business relationship that lasted many years.

Growing up in the Goodwin household meant helping out with the orchids. Duane learned a lot from his father's teachings but later started a career in horticulture and landscaping because he thought it was too much work to struggle with manual greenhouses with no automation. Duane's sister was influenced enough to start a career in the floral industry and is now studying to become a horticulture therapist. Duane's brother, however, knew he wanted to have an "indoors" career that afforded the luxury of air conditioning!

After more than 20 years in the orchid business and after losing his wife to cancer, Mr. Goodwin's health began to fail.  Unable to take care of the business, Mr. Goodwin sold the plants and greenhouses then he too succumbed to cancer in 1997.

The estate was left to the three children.  Duane became sentimental about selling the family farm and came to the decision that he should revive his father's orchid business.  After buying the family property and studying greenhouse designs for a year, Duane and his wife, Donna, breathed new life into Goodwin Orchid's history by constructing a state-of-the-art greenhouse.  This new greenhouse is dedicated only to the vandaceous varieties.  

The Goodwins spent a great deal of time traveling and researching the best and most reputable vanda growers in the world.  Much of the research was done in Mr. Goodwin's original notes regarding the best growers.  Many of these contacts were used to fill the new Goodwin Orchids with beautiful flowering size plants.

In the spring of 2001, a second state-of-the-art greenhouse was added which doubled the growing space of the first.  To help fill this new space, Duane made the journey to Thailand to reinforce old relationships and to establish and nurture new ones.  The time, effort, and resources used to build the new greenhouse and travel the world have been expended so that Goodwin Orchids can remain your best source for orchids in the United States.  Duane and Donna's two boys are the fifth generation of Goodwins to live on the family farm.  As they continue to grow, they will become the third generation of orchidists on the farm.

Leesburg, FL, 8 January 2005.

A couple featured previously in Florida Farm Bureau's magazine - The Voice of Agriculture, Duane and Donna Goodwin, have grown the orchid for several years and thought it was pretty, but so are the other hundreds of blooming vandaceous orchids in the greenhouse. Somehow, however, this one kept nagging at Duane to be judged by the relatively recently formed American Orchid Society's judging committee that meets once monthly at Leu Gardens in Orlando. Keeping a commitment to his two young sons, he wasn't able to take the orchid while in its full-bloom glory to the judging center, but his good friend and best customer, John Bevins, volunteered for the job.

“The flowers I judged were worthy of an FCC award,” said Bill Guthrie, one of the judges critiquing the plant, “but the two other spikes had flowers that only merited an AM, so I had to mark off.” An American Orchid Society First Class Certificate (FCC) award puts an orchid in the so-called Hall of Fame because so few make that classification. The Award of Merit (AM), however, is just as exciting to an orchid grower and lover. The awarded orchid plant is a specie called Vanda sanderiana, which is usually colored in maroon tones with some light pink. This plant, however, is more chartreuse and oxblood colored and according to Goodwin's research, the largest natural spread sanderiana flower awarded by the American Orchid Society (superseded by only .10 centimeter on one awarded and recorded by the Honolulu Orchid Society in Hawaii.)

Duane's already had offers for the keikis (baby plantlets on the mother plant) and for sire pollen from FCC awarded plants for crossing to create hybrid orchids. But if anyone has ideas of helping himself to the plant from the greenhouse located in Leesburg, they'd better think again. Since the robbery more than two years ago, a security system has been installed that includes sirens and a watchdog. “I'm installing video cameras now,” said Duane, who was devastated after losing much of his blooming private collection to the thief. This lucky one wasn't in bloom when the robbery occurred. As a side note, the thief was captured and is doing time right now in prison for the orchid theft as well as other crimes. A $500 reward was given by the Florida Farm Bureau to some who gave information leading to the arrest of the thief.

To learn more about orchids or to visit the orchid nursery, please contact Goodwin Orchids in Leesburg at (352) 787-9003 or email at goodwinorchids@aol.com

November 2002
By Ed Albanesi
Editor, Florida Agriculture magazine

'Orchids are like a drug to some people,” Duane Goodwin told us when Florida Agriculture visited him recently to prepare for this story. But before you worry that some botanical cult is grinding up orchid petals as a prelude to some hallucinogenic misdeed, let it be known that orchids have little or no potential as a controlled substance.

But orchids can become a hard habit to break for those who are enamored with their allure and entranced by their beauty. Once you’re under their spell, there’s a good chance you’ll be hooked forever. That’s what Goodwin meant.

Duane and his wife, Donna, own and operate Goodwin Orchids in Leesburg. They have been running the business since 1998. It’s something that neither of them ever imagined they would be doing. Duane’s father, John, began growing orchids in 1969 on land that once was an orange grove. As a youngster, Duane remembers helping his father care for his orchids. He also remembers that he didn’t much like it. “I had no desire to follow my dad’s footsteps into the orchid business,” Duane said.

In the mid ’90s Duane had a landscaping business while Donna was employed as a technical writer. John Goodwin, who had since retired, became seriously ill in 1997. “I brought my dad an orchid plant and was astounded to see how much it perked him up,” recalled Duane.

A short time later John Goodwin passed away, but the memory of how he reacted to the orchid plant was permanently etched in Duane’s mind. “I bought a book on orchids and began reading it,” said Duane. “Soon thereafter, I purchased the balance of my dad’s homestead from my brother and sister and decided to go into the orchid business.”

Duane now wishes he had taken more notes when his father was running the business. If his knowledge of how to grow and market orchids was limited, Donna’s knowledge of it was non-existent. “I had never grown an orchid in my life,” Donna chuckled.

About the time Duane and Donna were restarting their family’s orchid business, Donna gave birth to their first child, Grant. “Our plan was for me to stay home with Grant while helping Duane run the business,” said Donna. About 22 months later a second son, Garrett, became part of the family.
Donna heads up retail operations for the business while Duane has primary responsibility for the culture and growing of the orchids.

Most of the orchids that the Goodwins grow are either Vandas or Ascocendas. Vandas belong to a large, recently evolved group of plants that are commonly referred to as vandaceous orchids. Ascocendas are a man-made hybrid of a species plant called Ascocentrum crossed with a Vanda. The flowers of Vandas are generally large while the flowers of Ascocendas are smaller and similar in appearance to Vandas.

The Goodwins also grow Dendrobiums, which are very common in the orchid trade. Like most other cultivated orchids, they are epiphytes, or air plants. “In a natural setting, such as a tropical rainforest, you will find the epiphytes growing near the tops of the trees,” said Duane. “Vandas typically require a lot of light.”

Readers might be surprised to learn that it can take up to six years for an orchid plant to produce its first bloom. The Goodwins purchase mostly blooming-sized plants that will bloom within six months. They import much of their stock from Thailand, which is generally regarded as the orchid capital of the world. The Goodwins also purchase orchids from nurseries in south Florida. It’s a long process to grow orchids from seeds. The seeds are sown in an agar medium inside a flask where the emerging seedlings remain for about a year. Then they are put in a com (community) pot for another 12 months.

The seedlings then get their own pots and will continue growing for another two or three years until they reach near-blooming size. When “spikes” start shooting out, you’ll know that you’re not far away from the blooming stage.



Duane said that conditions for growing orchids in Thailand are so near-perfect that it’s not unusual for orchids grown from seed there to start blooming in only three or four years. Duane showed us a seedpod on a Dendrobium orchid. Dendrobiums have become popular because they are quicker to bloom than other orchid types. “You can get a bloom from a Dendrobium in about three years,” said Duane.

Last spring, a thief ran off with about 220 of the Goodwin’s orchid plants, including one they had nicknamed “Grandma.” A suspect was arrested and about 20 percent of the stolen plants recovered. Among the group of recovered orchids was “Grandma.”

“Grandma” is 11 years old and probably the Goodwin’s most valuable orchid. “We were once offered $1,000 for Grandma,” Duane recalled, not fully realizing the humor in what he had just said. Orchid plants produce keikis, which are essentially offspring or baby plants. “Grandma” was so named because of the prolific number of keikis that she has produced. “Grandma consists of about 50 plants – some with roots, some not yet rooted,” Donna revealed. “When she was stolen, she had five bloom spikes, and each spike had eight to 10 flowers each. She was glorious.”

When keikis remain on the mother plant, they can begin blooming before developing their own roots. You can have multiple bloom spikes when you have keikis and the mother plant blooming at the same time. “The cost of orchids has come down in the last several years,” said Donna. “Our plants average about $30 and range from a low of $15 to a high of around $80. Most of our sales are walk-in although we sell about 20 percent of our product online through our Web site. Probably about one-half of our sales are to repeat customers.”

The Goodwins package their orchids for shipment in a recently constructed shipping barn. Duane has shopped around for shipping materials and he now knows where to get them for the best price. “I’m paying much less for boxes and foam pellets than when we first started this process,” he said.
Duane employs one full-time helper who works with him both on his landscaping business and with his orchids. Although he provides this person with benefits, including health coverage and paid vacation and holidays, Duane thinks those involved in the orchid industry need to band together to help lower the cost of health insurance.

“We’re not going to get rich doing what we do, but it does provide an income and allows Donna to be here with the children,” Duane said. “ Plus we get to meet a lot of interesting people.”
Orchids are different from other flowering plants because the blooms will generally last for two months on the plant. Even if cut they will stay viable for about two weeks. And as the photographs accompanying this article will attest, they come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors, one as beautiful as the next.
“Orchids bring joy to people who nurture them,” declared Duane. “Some have identified this phenomenon as horticultural therapy.”

Added Donna, “If you want to really make someone’s day, cut a spike of one of your orchid plants and give it to them. It will never fail.”

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