I grew up on 1800 acres of family owned ranch land. I started working on Cattle ranches in the 70’s and became familiar with Florida cypress swamps. I greatly enjoyed my adventures into these wonderful swamps. They became my refuge and I always had the sense of traveling back hundreds of years in time when I entered one of these untouched places. I was able to find many of the Florida orchid species along with native ferns and a variety of wildlife. I began growing orchids in the late 60’s after several years of tagging along with my father to visit his friend’s greenhouses. Some of these growers were past FWCOS presidents. Jack Sweet 1946-48 Cliff Curry 1962 John Matthews 1963 John & Gloria Naugle 1968 Gladys Whitesell 1969 Richard Bates 1978 I began to receive a few back bulbs from some of these folks and a few of them lived. I was off to the races after that. I built my first flask box when I was in high school. I have been growing orchids most of my life and I get a great pleasure now when I am making new hybrids mostly in the Cattleya alliance.
I was the president of the Florida West Coast Orchid Society for 3 terms and am currently the 1st VP. I have been fortunate enough to receive several AOS awards and register several of my hybrids. The greatest satisfaction for me is to have one of my hybrids awarded. Now I am older than dirt and I am still fascinated with orchids. Somewhere back in my memory I am still a young man on an afternoon adventure in pristine florida cypress head or oak hammock. Bill Nunez ‘ AKA ‘ Rhizome Cowboy ‘
