This has come up before with regards to repotting/dividing. Many it seems are reluctant to repot or divide as they have found that it seems to set their plants back and it seems an interminable time until the plants finally flower again due to the trauma.

While it is true that repotting and/or dividing can be rather traumatic from the plant's point of view, and it can set plants back so to speak, it would be unfortunate for newbies to delay repotting or get overly anxious about it. One thing to keep in mind is that how traumatic repotting/division is and how much of a setback one may experience, depends in large part on the plant in question as well as when the repotting is done. Not every plant is going to experience a noticable setback.

This past June/beginning of July, I repotted and rather brutally divided a number of my catts. The divisions went up on Orchid Bids and they all found homes with loving adopters. The following are my divisions (the sections I kept) of three of said catts photographed today. I think you will agree that, at least in their cases, concerns of setting them "back" would have been misplaced.





Lousy picture on this one ... the flowers are NOT red but rather more of a burgundy or merlot in color.


So while it is true that division/repotting may set your plant back, it is not necessarily inevitable. Other factors do come into play. To put it simply, if ones plant needs repotting or divided, rather than wring ones hands and work oneself into a lather of dread, just do it .... you might be pleasantly surprised.