Born in Germany and raised in Florida, Weyman was a normal kid, until he collected his first orchid in the Big Cypress swamps at the age of 12. He grew up in the same town as Milton Carpenter and worked part time for Milton in his orchid business. Milton invited Weyman to Colombia, South America for the 7^th W.O.C. when he was 17 and there he fell in love with the tropics. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1976, where he studied Botany and Ornamental Horticulture with his major professor Dr. Tom Sheehan. In 1980 he accepted a position with "the godfather of the flower industry" in Mexico and later formed a very successful flower operation with a partner called Rancho La Joya.

That lasted until 1989, when Weyman, growing bored of making money (for his partners), decided to make Save the Flora International to promote ecologically sustainable development and salvage some of the millions of orchid plants he had observed dying over his many travels around the country and the tropical world. He stirred up a lot of mud in Mexico, and with Fish and Wildlife in Washington, over a dam in Oaxaca, and was officially invited to stop his operations. Being the obedient fellow is, he did, and has spent the last twelve years recovering from his efforts to publicly try and help the environment. Meanwhile to make a living, he has continued to grow orchids, give talks and set up other orchid nurseries in Mexico, all toll, four of the six existing today. The family, including two boys and his wife, Albaluz, live in Mission, Texas, where they have set up a small nursery, under the name of Abunda Flora, to distribute his plants from Mexico. Weyman claims to live in his pickup.

An adventurer at heart, an orchidist to the core, professor of innovation and a great lecturer on Mexican orchids and tropical orchid growing with a minimum investment. Weyman says anybody can grow an orchid, especially if they have the right environment. I guess that’s why he lives in the tropics? His notoriety even got him a brief mention in the Orchid Thief, the popular book by Susan Orleans. He claims he hadn’t been in Florida for 4 years prior to his encounter with the author, because of his painful losses caused by Hurricane Andrew, and that he was entirely misquoted in the book. You’ll have to come and see his presentation to judge for yourself.