To me, there's a difference between dividing a cattleya and just removing the back bulbs. The reason some cattleyas have lots of new growth and blooms is that they have several leads or rhizomes along which a new growth starts. If you actually divide the plant that means each new plant will have approximately half as many leads. That means it will take each plant a couple of years to get big and full again. The approach I like to use, when possible, is to remove some of the oldest 'back bulbs' to make the plant small enough to fit into the same pot it's in or a slightly larger pot. That way you preserve all the leads in the front of the plant so you'll get lots of new growth and flowers. Often you only need to remove a few of the back bulbs to make the plant managable. If you want to have smaller plants there's nothing wrong with dividing it so that some of the new leads are in each new pot. Don't worry about cutting the rhizome. Use sterile cutters and you can use something like Roottone on the cut if you want to. I actually don't treat the cut with anything and I've never had a problem.
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Repotting my Cattleya. It's too big needs dividing
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