Rich Ackerman: “What’s in a Name?”

Rich Ackerman has lived in Fort Lauderdale for almost forty years, where he has grown a wide variety of plants. His current interest is Florida native orchids. He caught the orchid bug attending the World Orchid Conference in Miami in 2008.

Rich works closely with UF/IFAS Extension, Broward County, where he is a Florida Master Gardener Volunteer, serves on the Urban Horticulture Advisory Board, and is leader of the Broward County Native Orchid Project. Through a partnership with  Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens, they are restoring native orchids in the urban environment, installing several thousand orchids every year. He also runs browardnativeorchids.com.

He is former President of the Fort Lauderdale Orchid Society and retired from Broward College in 2018. His work career focused on software research and development, along with project management in computer and library information sciences.

This introductory talk will help you understand the basics of orchid naming. From the tag in a pot you can tell whether the orchid is a species or a hybrid, and a whole lot more.

Rich will also have a selection of plants for sale including native species.