Just something needed in the fine tuning. Cattleya purpurata is not as easy as Cattleya intermedia here. I'm now tending towards Basket type pots for most of my large collection of "Cattleyas" That said, some of them have to be grown on a mount.

Looked up the climate of Texas previously and it seems that there are lots of extremes there.

Do some of your other "Cattleyas" do well there?

A "basket pot" is just a normal shaped plastic pot with holes in the sides as well as the base. Might be called something else in the USA.

Harvey, your Catt looks incredible growing on that tree! It would never ever survive our 100+* weather. The heat is always accompanied with wind and the plants I leave outdoors quickly get scorched roots. I shook all the loose orchiata out of the pot. IMO the plant has good roots, I will leave them exposed and keep it dryer. Fingers crossed that it will work. I don't want to repot at this time of year.

Arthur, I 'made' such a pot for a large Catt when I didn't have anything else to put it into, a humanniana and it's doing fine. I repotted large plants this past Spring into the metal baskets lined with the thick coco fiber mats. Those seem happy. This plant has such tall psbs/leaves so that didn't seem like a good choice for this plant.

Sheila, I did not think you could grow it on a tree where you live. And I can't grow them like they grow in their habitat. But I feel the goal is for each orchid type to mimic their natural environment as much as possible. In habitat many orchids will have one or more cycles of wet, dry per day. Buried in a deep plastic pot with medium that holds water does not allow a cycle a day or more. And as a grower it becomes difficult to know when it is time to water when the cycle may last 6 or 8 days.

When an orchid starts declining due to potting, I repot. I think yours should be repotted. If you submerge the pot in water for a few minutes it should come out easy. And use a clay pot. Use a rhizome clip to hold it on top of the medium. I find that the most common mistake among all orchid growers, new and experienced, is burying the roots. I must say some orchids prefer buried roots. I do not grow them. I think those are a large minority. I think paphs and phals go deeper. Others too.

The more water and feed that a plant can successfully absorb the more vibrant the plant. If your pot gets watered once a week due to slow drying then it will get 7 times less water than it does in the jungle or at my house. If they get multiple cycles per day in the jungle then the difference is bigger...

We can't perfectly imitate the rain forest at home. But our job is to lean in that direction as much as possible. When I first started growing orchids I bought plants that pleased my eye. I had plants that would never grow at my location. Now I look for flowers that suits my eye and my habitat.

Sheila is certainly experienced.

However, looking at your photo I agree with the advice given. It appears your plant is potted too low. Expose more of the roots and pot it higher so air gets at the top of the roots. That's what I would try and see if things change.

With orchids, who knows, sometimes no matter what, not every plant is made to grow for us.

Good luck,

Jane

When I left home yesterday the plant looked OK. I now have all the top roots and some farther down in the pot exposed to light/air. I simply turned the pot upside down and shook out all the bark that wasn't held tightly by roots. i'll repot in Spring and make sure that the roots are on top of the medium and not buried. Thanks one and all