Spring is the best time of year to repot and split orchids and at Writhlington spring starts early. One plant that needed drastic attention was this old plant of Odontoglossum cristatum. A lovely cool growing species from Colombia. It has been growing on the same piece of cork bark for about seven years and it is now in need of splitting up and repotting for a fresh start.

The first step is to sterilse a pair of secateurs by flaming them. This stops the spread of virus disease. New the plant is cut into parts each with at least three healthy pseudobulbs.

This is one new plant here.

The old plant divided into four flowering size large plants, one small plant and three old bulbs seemed firm and healthy and so were potted with the hope that they might develop a new plant from dormant eyes at their bases. This is called back bulb propagation.

The large plants were all potted into 12cm hanging baskets in a mix of sphagnum moss, bark and perlite. The small plant and the back bulbs were potted into 7cm pots.

Next year we can look forward to some lovely new growths and flowers around November like the one below.