Many articles online recommend to repot Cattleya orchids in Spring. Our unifoliate Cattleya just finished flowering few weeks ago and the new flower bud in the sheath was rotten and I cut it out yesterday. This morning I decided to repot and divide the orchid plant, even though it is near autumn in another 2 weeks.
Looking at our Cattleya, it looked like it had been grown in that pot for a long-long time as the surface of the growing media was fully covered with moss. New growths and roots hung outside the pot. When I took it out from the pot, the root system was not very good with many rotten and the growing media had started to disintegrate. The rhizome was long and it would need a big pot to accommodate the whole plant in and big pot is not very good. So I decided to cut the plant into two sections. One bigger part consists of the new bulbs + leaves and the roots that were hanging outside the pot. The other section is smaller that consists of the old bulbs and leaves. It has only very few healthy roots, but I hope it will grow more later on.
When I looked closely, I noticed four new growths start to come out from the bottom of some of the big bulbs/stems. They don’t look like new roots. What are they going to be? Will they be new bulbs/leaves or new sheaths? Just have to wait and see.
My First Cattleya – before it was divided and repotted
Old Roots, Disintegrated Potting Media covered with moss
Long Rhizome – Many Rotten Old Roots
2 Divisions – Cutting wounds were sealed by using melted candle wax
Repotted …..
New Growths
Kiyanti2008's Weblog 
Apr 03, 2015 @ 12:40:16
Note April 3, 2015: The smaller Cattleya that I repotted died, and only the big one survives. However, until now it hasn’t bloomed again. No idea why and what tricks to make it flower. The plant itself looks healthy and so far has grown new foliage. So I haven’t bought another Cattleya and probably never will until this one grows flowers.