Can you say, "overgrown?"

[james mickelso]

A big cattleya that should have been repotted a couple years ago and why you should always pot with repotting in mind in two or three years. Repotting an overgrown plant is fraught with peril and is a pain in the keester too. If I had left this for another year or two, it most certainly would have rotted most of the inner portion of this root ball. There was little air movement through the root ball. Luckily most of the roots I needed to save were wrapping around the outside of the root ball along the inner wall of the pot. I removed well over two thirds of the root ball and repotted it in a mix of expanded clay pellets and chopped sphagnum moss. This has two enormous flower sheaths on it that have been there since last summer. So if your plant is starting to grow to one side of the pot or if it has grown roots that are too dense for the pot, repot it as soon as possible. Another interesting thing about this plant......it has both naked flower buds (no sheath) and sheathed flower buds.