If one were to cut a part of an orchid plant and grow that division it would eventually grow and blossom exactly like the original plant. Cloning is a process where large quantities of orchids or other plants can be made from a single plant. Thus clones ideally would result in plants that are identical to the original.

Hybrids are plants that are grown by seeds and are a result of sexual reproduction.
Orchid species can exhibit variations, but in general will tend to look very similar. Hybrids are derived from species originally clustered in nature. Primary hybrids are hybrids made from two species. Primary hybrids tend to exhibit very similar traits. These hybrids can even be considered, in some cases, fairly uniform. As we move toward more complex hybrids, meaning, orchids derived from several or many generations of breeding with genealogy involving many species, we tend to find variations and permutations to a greater extent. Thus when selecting hybrids their genealogy can be of great importance in understanding what the progeny will result in. The collective siblings tend to exhibit a wider range of possibilities as the complexity of their genealogy increases.

Breeding complex hybrids can result in a relatively uniform population by introducing various concepts such as "line breeding", "polyploid breeding", and "outcrossing". These concepts are particularly noticeable when following University of Hawaii varieties, particular Art Shade Dendrobium lines, and complex hybrids crossed to species or primaries.

Nature, in its wonderfully developed survival mechanisms has also evolved to insure orchid seeds are virus free(*). In nature, orchids, through a myriad of vectors, are known to have viruses. It is even hypothesized that viruses co-exist with all living organisms and assist the evolutionary process. Thus, in order to perpetuate viral free plants, orchid seeds do not contain viruses.

(*) Lindleyana 11(4):211-213, 1996: Lack of seed transmission of Cymbidium Mosaic Virus in Dendrobium