Siegwart and Slotter Orchid Growers collection

Siegwart and Slotter was a family business specializing in the wholesale distribution of fresh orchid blooms to florists on the East coast of the United States, as far West as Chicago. It came into being through the efforts of two individuals: Charles Siegwart, who immigrated to the United States in 1883 from Ems, Switzerland, and John Walter Slotter, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first orchid growing business was started in Irvington, Baltimore City, by Charles Siegwart as the "Charles Siegwart Co." and moved to Box 175 Jessup Road in Jessup, Anne Arundel County, Maryland in 1927. Soon after, John Slotter started a seedling orchid business in Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania. The letterhead name of this business was "John W. Slotter, Seedling Orchid Grower, Chadd's Ford, Pa." These two families and businesses merged to form Siegwart and Slotter with the marriage of Charles Siegwart's daughter, Katherine, to John Slotter in the early 1930s.

Siegwart family

Charles Siegwart was born in Ems, Switzerland in 1863. Charles was the son and grandson of Swiss glass makers. His father, Andrew Siegwart, brought the family to the United States in 1883 and died four years later. Charles had two sisters, Agnus and Crescentia, and two brothers, Karl and Arnold. Charles continued to work as a glass-blower for over twenty years after coming to Baltimore, retiring in 1908 at the age of 50. He began his career in horticulture at about age 54 by growing tulips, carnations, and roses.

Charles married Caroline (Carrie) Lohr in 1893 in Baltimore. She was the daughter of Henry Lohr, a well-known contractor in the city, and Margaret Spath. They had one daughter, Katherine M., born in 1894 in Baltimore.

Other members of the family in Irvington were Caroline's brother, Martin Lohr, and his wife Hannah, proprietors of Lohr and Fritizi florists on Old Frederick Road, and her two sisters: Maria Anna Lohr Buck and Katherina Lohr Engelhaupt. Maria Buck, widow of William Buck, ran a seafood restaurant near the Inner Harbor and was well-known among sailors for her padded oysters. Katherina Engelhaupt was the widow of Wilhelm Heinrich Engelhaupt and had three children: Mary Ann Engelhaupt (Mamie), William Henry Engelhaupt Jr., and Edith Marie Wise (the granddaughter of her husband's sister, Anna Engelhaupt Elgert).

German was the first language of all older family members. Early baptismal and marriage records are in German and bear the name of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church (St. Johannes) where the Lohrs and Engelhaupts attended. Charles Siegwart himself was a Roman Catholic and continued in that religion until the end of his life. In later years, Lutheran members of the family attended the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer at 4211 Vermont Avenue in Irvington. Two streets, Siegwart Lane off Old Frederick Road and Lohrs Lane off Caton Avenue in Irvington, are named for the family.

Siegwart Orchid Growers

Siegwart started experimenting with growing orchids in his greenhouses around 1910 when the wholesale production of orchid blooms in Maryland was unknown. He purchased orchid plants from collectors who took them from their native habitats. In 1918, the Federal Horticultural Board banned the importation of orchid plants collected in the tropics because of the insects and diseases that came with them. When the ban on importation went into effect, Charles Siegwart had a few hundred orchid plants in his greenhouses. Most of his plants were produced by splitting up older speciments. By 1926 all of his greenhouses were devoted to the culture of orchids and he was working in close cooperation with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture on the greenhouse cultivation and hybridization of orchids. In 1926 Siegwart was the second-largest producer of orchid blooms in the United States.

In about 1927 the Charles Siegwart family moved out of Baltimore City to Jessup in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Newly constructed buildings in Irvington had started to shade his greenhouses and Jessup was closer to his sources of peat. At the age of 64, he used all of his savings to buy a 15-acre property at P.O. Box 175 Jessup Road to construct five large greenhouses.

John Slotter

John Walter Slotter was born in Homesburg, Pennsylvania on October 28, 1890. His parents were Edward Francis Slotter (born circa 1861) and Louise Neugent. His mother died before he was ten years old, and his father remarried. He had two brothers, Raymond and Charles, and a sister, Mary. Sometime after 1900, the Slotter family moved west into Texas, and John grew up there.

John Slotter became interested in orchids in 1912 when he went to South America as a civil engineer for the Brazilian Government and saw orchids blooming in the jungle. After returning from Brazil, he served in the United States Army during the Mexican Border Campaign (1916-1917) commanded by General John J. Pershing and his young assistant, George Patton.

The Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916 was a prelude to World War I. The United States became involved in th ongoing Mexican Revolution after Pancho Villa's raid ont he town of Columbus, New Mexico resulted in 24 American casualties. To prevent further raids, President Wilson stationed fifteen thousand troops along the western part of the United States-Mexican border in Texas. Fighting was usually limited to guerilla warfare and sniping by Mexican sharp-shooters. John Slotter was pursuing Mexican bandits near the Rio Grande when he was shot in the upper leg. On January 17, 1917, President Wilson ordered the withdrawl of American troops.

John W. Slotter, Seedling Orchid Growers

After his military service in 1916-1917, John Slotter returned to Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania for the purpose of starting an orchid growing business. He worked with Mrs. William H. House (Mrs. Mary A. House), where he became a pioneer in the naturalistic display of orchids. Slotter also developed a relationship with Pierre Dupont of Longwood Gardens in Kennet Square, Pennsylvania.

John Slotter and Katherine Siegwart met at an orchid show in the late 1920s where most of the small group of American orchid growers got to know eachother. In 1932, John developed a hybrid orchid critically acclaimed as the first good white hybrid and named it after Katherine. Two years later they were married and the Charles Siegwart Co. became Siegwart and Slotter. The couple made their home at Box 175 Jessup Road on the property owned by Katheirne's father, Charles Siegwart. They had no living children.

Later Years

Siegwart and Slotter propsered in the years after 1940. Around 1944, Siegwart and Slotter hybridized a new orchid and named it after the current First Lady, Bess Truman. After shipping a box of the blooms off to the White House and receiving no thanks or acknowledgement of the gift from Mrs. Truman, the orchid was promptly renamed. In the late 1950s a new orchid was named for the film star Gina Lollobrigida. The blooms were blooms were fashioned into a corsage for her by the Allied Florists' Association of Greater Baltimore and flown to her Paris hotel by Air France.

Charles Siegwart died in 1951 at the age of 87. His wife, Caroline Lohr Siegwart, died in 1958 at the age of 89. After that time the sales of orchid blooms at Siegwart and Slotter declined. The reason was believed to be the increasing ease and speed of orchid shipments from other sources using jet planes.

John Slotter died in 1966 from cancer related to the use of toxic sprays in his greenhouses. Katherine Siegwart died of a heart attack in 1978.