About Little Wonder

Professionals Demand Little Wonder™

Little Wonder is one of the oldest and most reputable brands in the landscaping industry. Detco Manufacturing owner, John C. Dettra from Oaks, PA, invented the Little Wonder in the early 1920’s and sold the Little Wonder products starting in 1922. Initially,  Little Wonder was only a hand-crank trimmer. In 1925 he sold his first electrically operated model. A side cutting carriage was added in 1927, and a lawn clipper model was added in 1930. 

In 1942, John had the trademark transferred to his son Howard C. Dettra and in 1946, Howard C. Dettra transferred the trademark to Schiller Pfeiffer Machine Works. 

Oddly enough, the product found a strong customer base in the food industry. Pasta makers trusted the unit’s razor-sharp hand-finished blades to slice their delicate fresh pasta into strips. Little Wonder has introduced many of the landscape applications most beloved and trusted products. Little Wonder produced the world’s first electric-powered hedge trimmer in 1940, followed by the world’s first gasoline-powered unit in 1955.

Little Wonder even invented the world’s first “hand-held” tiller and coined the terms “Roto” and “Mini” Tiller in the 1970’s. In 1997 (75 years young),

Little Wonder revolutionized debris management with the introduction of a newly redesigned line of walk-behind blowers. Input from independent airflow-design engineers was instrumental in creating a new product line that far surpassed the performance of all other walk-behind blowers on the market. So much so, that a patent for the design was granted in 1998. Today, Little Wonder product lines include blowers, edgers & bed shapers, leaf & debris vacuums, truck loaders, and, of course, hedge trimmers.