CYMBIDIUMS 
CULTURE 
To BEGIN, we will say that you have just acquired a cymbidium plant 
and immediately you have a problem. What shall you do with it? What 
about repotting it? First, you should see its root system and begin to grow 
it in your own compost. 
REPOTTING 
Depending upon how and when it is done, this procedure can result in 
little or no damage to the plant’s growth and its florescence. 
If repotting must be done because the plant is obviously sick or grossly 
underpotted, or the compost is hopeless or exhausted, it may be done with 
the least harm by hosing the old compost out and loosening the plant al- 
together and repotting in a manner described later. 
WHEN TO REPOT — In the summer months or the warm months of 
spring and autumn it will be found that most cymbidiums, irrespective of 
their stage of growth, are not at rest, whether or not the latest bulb has just 
been made up, whether a new lead has appeared, or whether a flower spike 
is just showing. If repotting must be done in the warm months, do it when 
the bulb is fully completed, as by this time the root system is fully developed 
and has fed the bulb to adult stage. It will still be active in the warm months, 
supplying reserve energy, or preparing the bulb for a late autumn shoot, or 
developing the early flower spike, but at least its major job will have been 
done. 
It is best to delay repotting to the late winter months, say, no earlier 
than the second week in February with an average established hybrid. During 
the winter months the plant is either dormant or relatively so, and by se- 
lecting middle February you are just anticipating the new growth that surges 
in all plant life before spring comes, and what damage may be done will be 
more or less quickly repaired and the plant practically will move straight 
ahead. Even if the plant had made a late summer or even autumn growth, 
that growth will have stood practically still during the cold winter and the 
plant be relatively dormant. So, in the late winter, do not hesitate to repot, 
even if an autumn new growth is well developed and well above the com- 
post, this being vastly different from a developing new lead in the warm 
months when growth is active. 
By the second week in February, the plant may have a flower spike and 
even new growths as well as the flower spike. Repot it if it is necessary. 
The repotting will not damage the flower spike nor the plant if carefully 
done at this time. The plant is still relatively or wholly dormant, the last 
stages of florescence being made on the reserves that the root system has 
stored in the bulbs. That is why, at the end of flowering, the root system 
often being dormant, the bulbs shrivel somewhat, as their reserves are drawn 
upon. The cycle of that bulb is finished; new growth, maturation and flo- 
rescence have been completed; and then, after flowering, come rest and 
recovery of energy to start a new growth or, if the new growth has started 
already, to urge it on more quickly. 
A bulb that is going to flower nearly always shows the flower shoot first 
and the new lead later, and nearly always the new lead is later in appearing 
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