I am a total Orchid newbee so please bear with me. One week ago I purchased a Cattleya orchid from Lowe's. The plant medium was totally dry and most of the pseudobulbs were shrunken. When dampened the medium had a musty smell sort of like decaying leaves. The leaves were a dark green. A quick read on the several sites (AOS was one) on net told to repot asap. I did the next day in a regular Terra cotta 5" pot with an medium course orchid mix containing bark, charcoal and sponge rock I'd had used potted my Guzmania. Most of the roots were rotten (95%+). Of course now I know I have over potted it and positioned wrong in said pot. I most likely damaged any semi good roots that we're left.

I've kept it isolated from my other plant , next to a southern facing upstairs window. I have been misting the top of the bark not the leaves. Most days this week have been very cloudy but today we've had sun and I've noticed that one of the leaves of the oldest smalles and most shrunken pseudobulbs is changing color (see photos) Is this a bad sign?

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I'm not sure what all that stuff in the middle of your post is. Did you try to post more photos?

The good news is that Cattleyas root easily. Now that its got some fresh bark, hold the plant under the faucet every day. Get the bark and the leaves wet. Raise the humidity with a humidity tray larger than the plant is wide. Misting doesn't do anything except ruin your furniture.

Your orchid is a beautiful, fragrant bifoliate Cattleya species. When healthy, they need to be watered well and then allowed to dry out between waterings.
It would love to have as much early morning sun as you can give it. 3 hours per sunny day would be ideal. It is very hard to get roots to resprout since they typically make new roots as the newest growth mature. They usually bloom once a year, rarely twice.
I have grown them potted or mounted. Clay pots are best. They like humidity from 40-70 %. Only fertilize once a month. Flowers are about four inches wide and fragrant.



Once happy, they do lot like to be repotted and many times will " wander" out over the edge of the pot. They will be fine. Orchids are epiphytes which means that they attach to a host for support only. They are not parasites. Roots need air to survive so never use potting soil.
This is one of my favorite species of all time!! Good luck! Welcome to our forums and the world of orchids!!

Your orchids are always so lovely Bill

Thanks Gina!

Thanks everyone for the information thus far. I have a question still. Given it's condition at the present time (lacking a significant amount of roots), what steps should I take to "support" the plant until it can hopefully turn it's health around?

Should I water daily as suggested from Daisyl? Move it away from the Southern window? Right now the room it's being isolated in is a bedroom that's kept at 65°F with windows that face North, South and West. The house is 100 years old and has baseboard hot water heat registers. Should I move it from this room? I have a small dish of pebbles with water under the pot (a small plastic saucer in between the pot and pebbles).

I don't think you should water it daily if you have very few live roots. If you give it a little sun and keep the humidity between 40-60 %, it will make a few new roots on its own.
If you water too often you may rot the few roots it has.
With a little water and a little light, that should make the plant produce a few new roots. Just don't fry it with too much light. If the bulbs shrivel, it is okay. A new root or two will plump those bulbs up a bit. Just don't lose patience!

Thank you BigBill.

In the original post I stated that have been dampening the top layer(s) of bark with a spray bottle once daily. Just enough to so I can get a whiff " fir bark" smell. Is this too much/too often? I'm sorry I'm asking so many questions. If this was my 1940's type of Christmas cactus that I've had for over 30 years I'd know what was going on but orchids are a whole different kettle of fish.

Misting can be a way to increase humidity but it can lead to other issues.
Just give it a little sun like I said and reallyvwater it well once a week. Let it really pour out the bottom.
It should recover. Walkeriana is a favorite species of mine. It took me years to learn how to grow it and I am passing my success on to you,

Since I can not put the Cattleya in an East window, I have found an old small loose weave sheer to put over the south window. I hope that it help protect it from the afternoon sun until it's stronger. The reasons for not placing in any east windows are 1) I only have two small ones and 2) four indoor cats, two of which think it's their **job** in life to munch on leaves. (Or jank not rooted plants out of pots) Being this an old house this is the only room with a door that inquisitive/persistent felines cannot get open.

Just make sure that the leaves stay a bright green. Darker green means it needs more light, yellow green means it is too much light.

The leaf/section that I was worried about turn brown at the base of the leaf where it attaches to the plant and it had a sickly yellowish blister-like structure forming above the brown. I removed the leaf and for safety sake with a new sterilized razor blade removed the pseudobulb to the rhizome. Where it connected to the main plant and the bulb looked brown and pithy inside. Treated the cut with Liquid copper RTU and sealed it with cinnamon. In the morning I gently swabbed down with q-tips all the other pseudobulbs with hydrogen peroxide. From across the room I put on an oscillating fan to help with air movement turning it off at night. Yesterday I went out and purchased a humidity meter (analog) to keep track of the % of humid in that room (60% as of this morning).

My suggestion is to get more Orchids, so you don't fret so much about this one? (In the aquarium hobby the extra fish would be called "dither fish". )
Orchids do shed at times the older leaves and that would be normal. But - I would find a more reputable Orchid nursery/source and buy good Orchids from them, preferably in bloom! It is a lot more fun to at least start out with a nice and healthy plant.

Ursula has provided excellent advice! If your attention is focused on one particular orchid you might over analyze and obsess about that one plant.
Buy a few more, a couple of Phalaenopsis, maybe an Oncidium hybrid, a grow a few more orchids. If these do well and bloom like I suspect they will they can boost your confidence, increase your joy, and give you great emotional reward.
Perhaps a few successes will ease the concern about one problem.

You two are going to get me in a lot of trouble with MDH. He already thinks I've gone around the bend with one orchid. Ursula and Bill, your advice sound like the kind I gave a friend recently who is competing in AKC agility with her first ever dog. You can think you've planned for all the possible ways to handle the dog on the course or how to avoid courses traps and usually when actually out there running it, your dog ends up doing (or not doing) something you hadn't considered. Judges always remind us that the idea of the game is to have fun with your dog.

Oh yes, I have an aunt in Polk City Iowa. Yes!! Two God daughters as well in the Ankeny area.

You just need to give into the "Bright Side"!!! and grow more orchids. That will cure everything. Well at least we think it will!!

I totally agree!!